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The Young Wireless Operator— 
With the U. S. Secret Service 


BOOKS BY 

LEWIS E. THEISS 


IN CAMP AT FORT BRADY. A Camping Story. 
304 pages. 

HIS BIG BROTHER. A Story of the Struggles and 
Triumphs of a Little Son of Liberty. 320 pages. 

LUMBERJACK BOB. A Tale of the Alleghanies. 

320 pages. 

THE WIRELESS PATROL AT CAMP BRADY. A 
Story of How the- Boy Campers, Through Their 
Knowledge of Wireless, “ Did Their Bit.” 320 pages. 

THE SECRET WIRELESS. A Story of the Camp Brady 
Patrol. 320 pages. 

THE HIDDEN AERIAL. The Spy Line on the Moun¬ 
tain. 332 pages. 

THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR—AFLOAT. 
How Roy Mercer Won His Spurs in the Merchant 
Marine. 320 pages. 

THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR—AS A FIRE 
PATROL. The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur 
Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol. 352 pages. 

THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR—WITH THE 
OYSTER FLEET. How Alec Cunningham Won 
His Way to the Top in the Oyster Business. 328 pages. 

Cloth Bound—Illustrated by Colored 
Plates and Photographs 











The Young Wireless Operator- 
With the U. S. Secret Service 

WINNING HIS WA YIN THE 
SECRET SERVICE 


Bv - 

LEWIS E. THEISS 


M 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

FRANK T. MERRILL 



W. A. WILDE COMPANY 


CHICAGO 


BOSTON 













' 3-18370 



Copyrighted, 1923, 

By W. A. Wilde Company 
All rights reserved 

The Young Wireless Operator—With the 
U. S. Secret Service 

9S 



Made in U. S. A. 

©C1A766321 

% 


DEC 12 1923 - 



FRANCES WARREN THEISS 


whose youthful interest hi this story , as 
it grew , chapter by chapter , /raj a 
real inspiration to its maker 



Foreword 


TT may interest readers of The Young Wire - 
less Operator series to know that most of the 
happenings in these books are based upon actual 
occurrences. Years ago, as a reporter, the author 
wrote for the New York Sun the stories of the 
auction of bled wool, the cotton-lined cabin, the 
mystery of the wheat sacks, and other accounts 
of the work of the United States Secret Service, 
that appear in this present volume. Although 
some of the characters in the book are of course 
fictitious, others, like Sheridan of the Secret 
Service, are real characters who actually did the 
things they are portrayed as doing. Of course 
names have been changed. The practice of keep¬ 
ing note-books and clippings that had to do with 
work the writer was engaged in, has made all this 
material available for present use, and brought it 
once more freshly to mind. The descriptions of 
parts of New York and her wonderful water¬ 
ways are written from intimate, personal knowl¬ 
edge of the places described. In effect, therefore, 
The Young Wireless Operator—With the U . S . 

Secret Service is a true story. 

7 


8 


FOREWORD 


To make all the tales in this series true has been 
the earnest desire of the writer. That does not 
mean that every incident described necessarily 
happened. It does mean that the incidents used 
are not only possible under the circumstances, but 
probable, and that the descriptions are exact and 
accurate. The picture of life portrayed is in each 
case as exact as careful observation and careful 
writing can make it. 

Before the author prepared the preceding 
volume of this series, The Young Wireless 
Operator—With the Oyster Fleet , he first went 
to the Delaware Bay and made a cruise on an 
oyster boat, living aboard with the crew and 
sharing their life and labors. Furthermore, he 
had lived for twenty years in that country and 
had spent many weeks, in all, cruising about on 
oyster boats. 

The writing of The Young Wireless Operator 
—Afloat, which deals with both New York City 
and ports on the Mexican Gulf was made possi¬ 
ble by residence for some months on the Gulf, 
and through the cooperation of Southern news¬ 
paper men. Practically all the incidents related 
concerning the tidal wave that destroyed Corpus 
Christi are stories of actual occurrences, gathered 
by newspaper men on the spot. Most of the 
ships described in that story are real vessels and 


FOREWORD 


9 


were actually afloat at the time and in the posi¬ 
tions given to them by the author. The wireless 
stations and wireless calls are also real. 

Before writing The Young Wireless Operator 
—As a Fire Patrol , the writer spent many days 
in the forest with a District Forester, studying 
the actual working of the Pennsylvania State 
Forestry system, though in earlier years he had 
spent weeks camping and tramping in those same 
mountain forests. Many of the incidents used 
in the book were contributed by forest rangers. 
The manuscript of the book was read and ap¬ 
proved by both the District Forester and Gif¬ 
ford Pichot, then Pennsylvania Commissioner of 
Forestry and now Governor of Pennsylvania, in 
order that there might be no mistakes in the 
text. Mr. Pinchot also showed his approval of 
the book by writing a foreword for it. 

This present wireless series really had its in¬ 
ception, years ago, with the appearance of In 
Camp at Fort Brady. Readers of that book 
showed so much interest in some of the characters 
that, when it came to writing further volumes, 
the author naturally went on with the history of 
some of those boys. Thus Roy Mercer and Alec 
Cunningham and Charley Russell and Willie 
Brown, who have figured in The Young Wire - 
less Operator series, are really old acquaintances, 


10 


FOREWORD 


and made their first appearance in In Camp at 
Fort Brady, and their next in The Secret Wire¬ 
less and in The Hidden Aerial. The later 
volumes have dealt with individual members of 
the Camp Brady Wireless Patrol rather than 
with the Patrol as a whole. The author has be¬ 
come as much interested in this band of boys 
as he hopes any of his readers has. And it is his 
plan to go on with these individual histories until 
we know what became of each boy. 

Lewis Edwin Theiss. 

Otzinachson, Muncy, Pa. 

January 29,1923. 


L 

II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 

VIT. 
VIII. 
IX. 
X. 
XL 
XII. 
XIII. 
XIV. 
XV. 
XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX. 


CONTENTS 


An Unexpected Opportunity . . 13 

An Adventure with a Secret Service 

Man.38 

A Tip by Wireless .... 68 

The Capture of the Wool Smugglers 68 

On the Trail of a Cotton Thief . 82 


What Was Behind the False Par¬ 
tition . 

Willie Gets His Chance . 

In the Armenian Quarter 

Under a Cloud. 

The Cloud Grows Darker . 

Willie Makes a Discovery 

The Mystery of the Wheat Sacks 

Saved by Wireless . . . . 

Who Made the False Key? 

A Watch on a Diamond Smuggler . 

Where the Jewels Were Hidden . 

After the Whiskey Smugglers 

The Pursuit in the Dark . 

Victory. 


96 

117 

131 

164 

177 

190 

202 

226 

236 

249 

267 

272 

284 

307 


11 



The Young Wireless Operator— 
With the U. S. Secret Service 


CHAPTER I 

AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 

pHE coastwise steamer Lycoming was being 
■*- warped into her berth along the Hudson 
River in New York City. A fussy, little tug 
was pushing against the Lycoming's bow, while 
other puffing, bustling tugs butted the great ship 
astern, in an effort to swing the vessel at right 
angles to the stream and push her into her dock. 
On the Lycoming's lower deck sailors stood ready 
to cast great hawsers ashore the moment the ship 
should be within reach of the pier. As motion¬ 
less as though he were a part of the ship itself, 
the captain stood on the bridge, silent and watch¬ 
ful, giving occasional orders. The upper decks 
were alive with passengers, who swarmed to the 

rail, eagerly scanning the faces of the still dis- 

13 


14 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


tant crowd on the pier. Now some passenger 
identified the face of a friend ashore, and again 
some one waiting on the pier discovered a friend 
on board the steamer, and cheery greetings were 
called back and forth across the ever-narrowing 
strip of muddy water that separated the great 
ship from her pier. 

As the vessel slid nearer, the excitement in¬ 
creased. More and more persons on shipboard 
and on the pier recognized friends and called to 
them. A very babel of voices arose. The scuf¬ 
fling and tramping of feet intensified the noise. 
Passengers descended to the lower decks and the 
people on the pier crowded forward toward the 
waiting gangplank. The tugs snorted and 
puffed, churning the water into yeasty foam. 
From the pier came the rumble and rattle of lit¬ 
tle hand trucks and the crash and bang of boxes 
and cases, which a gang of stevedores was piling 
in a corner for shipment. Outside arose the roar 
of the street traffic—the clatter of iron shod hoofs 
on hard paving-stones, the throbbing and churn¬ 
ing of innumerable motors, the rattle of trucks 
and wagons, and the shrill cries of newsies, street 
venders, taxi drivers, and baggage porters. 

The huge steamer was almost in her berth, and 
the sailors were in the verv act of casting their 
lines ashore, when the door of the wireless cabin, 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 


15 


a snug little structure perched on the very top 
deck of the Lycoming , swung open, and a trim 
young man, dressed in a well-fitting uniform of 
the Marconi Service, stepped to the side of the 
ship. He was the wireless operator, and in his 
hand he carried a pair of powerful binoculars. 
Steadying himself against the rail, he slowly 
swept his glance along the line of faces that 
fringed the pier. Presently his glasses came to 
rest. For a single moment they remained sta¬ 
tionary. Then the wireless man slipped his bin¬ 
oculars into his pocket, cupped his hands in front 
of his mouth, and leaned over the rail, giving a 
long, peculiar whistle. It was the signal of the 
Camp Brady Wireless Patrol. Apparently the 
signal was unheard. When the wireless man re¬ 
peated it, a youthful face, almost hidden by the 
people on the pier, was upturned. A smile came 
on the waiting lad’s face. His arms shot up in 
silent greeting. 

“Come to the gangway,” shouted the wireless 
man through his cupped hands. 

There was a little commotion in the crowd on 
the pier, as the lad to whom the wireless man had 
called tried to force his way through the crowd 
toward the gangway. But he was so small, being 
scarcely larger than a boy, in fact, that he could 
hardly press forward through the crowd. The 


16 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


heavy suit case he carried made it all the more 
difficult for him. While the lad was still strug¬ 
gling toward the gangplank, the wireless man 
slipped down ladder and stairs with the grace 
and agility of a cat, and within a few seconds 
stood on the lower deck beside the sailors, who 
were waiting to make fast the gangplank. 

“ Just let that little fellow there come aboard,” 
said the wireless man, pointing to his friend who 
was still struggling to get through the crowd. 

“ Aye, aye, Mr. Mercer,” called back a husky 
hand on the dock, who stood ready to help shove 
the gangplank into place. Then, turning around, 
the huge fellow shouldered his way through the 
crowd, whisked the suit case out of the little lad’s 
hand, and opened a way for him through the 
press. In another moment the gangplank was 
run out and made fast; and before the little lad 
knew what was happening, he and his suit case 
were bundled up the gangplank and aboard ship. 
A second later the eager passengers were pouring 
down the gangway in a torrent. 

Eagerly the visiting lad caught the out¬ 
stretched hand of the wireless man, and they 
stepped to one side, out of the way. “ You’re a 
sight for sore eyes, Willie Brown,” said the wire¬ 
less man, shaking bis friend’s hand again and 
again. “ Gee! But I sure am glad to see you.” 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 17 

“ You can’t be any more pleased to see me 
than I am to see you, Roy.” Then the little visi¬ 
tor drew hack a pace and admired his friend. 
“ Gee whiz! ” he said. “ Just look at your fine 
uniform. I guess it’s true that clothes make the 
man. Why, I heard that dock hand even call 
you Mister. Think of that! You don’t catch me 
calling you Mister, even if you are the wireless 
operator. You’re just plain Roy Mercer of the 
Camp Brady Wireless Patrol to me.” 

The wireless operator laughed gleefully. 
“ You bet you won’t call me Mr. Mercer. I’d 
chuck you overboard if you did. But come on. 
Let’s get out of this. We’ll go to the wireless 
cabin where we can talk without interruption.” 

He picked up his visitor’s suit case. Then he 
turned toward his friend with an expression of 
astonishment on his face. “ Whatever have you 
got in that suit case, Willie Brown? ” he asked. 
“ It’s as heavy as a ton of bricks.” 

“ I’ve got my wireless set in it, Roy, and a 
bunch of fresh batteries.” 

“Your wireless set! Well, of all the fool 
ideas! To bring your dinky home-made wireless 
outfit with you, when the Lycoming has one of 
the most up-to-date equipments money can buy! 
But I don’t care if you’ve got a crocodile in your 
suit case. It’s you I’m interested in, Willie. 


18 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Gee whiz! It does seem good to see you. Tell 
me about the rest of the bunch. How are they? ” 

“ Fine as silk,” said Willie. 

By this time they had reached the wireless 
house. Willie’s eyes opened wide in astonish¬ 
ment as he saw the magnificent wireless outfit. 
“Whew!” he whistled. “That’s a dandy set. 
Won’t you show it to me? ” 

“ Sure,” said Roy, “ but first tell me about the 
fellows at home. How’s the Wireless Patrol 
coming on? And what are the fellows all doing? 
Tell me about them.” 

“ There is might}^ little to tell you that you 
don’t already know, Roy. We’ve told you by 
wireless everything that’s worth telling. Charley 
Russell is still a forest ranger and doing well. 
Pie’s getting ahead fast. And Alec is making 
good in the oyster business. We had a letter 
from him telling us how you saved him and his 
friends when their ship became disabled in a 
storm in the Delaware Bay and drifted to sea. 
That was a wonderful rescue, Roy. Gee whiz! 
We fellows of the Wireless Patrol were proud 
of vou.” 

“Rats! I hadn’t anything to do with the 
rescue. Captain Lansford is the man who saved 
Alec and his friends. I merely caught his SOS.” 

“We know all about how much you had to do 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 


19 


with it. We know that Alec would never have 
been saved if you hadn’t been at your post, do¬ 
ing your duty. We know-” 

“ Forget it, Willie, and tell me about the 
bunch. I’m crazy to know all about them.” 

“ Well, I was just running through the list. 
Next comes Roy Mercer,” and Willie’s eyes 
twinkled. “ He’s become famous as the wireless 
operator-” 

Willie dodged just in time to miss a book that 
Roy shied at him. “ Tell me something about 
yourself, Willie. It’s some time now since Com¬ 
mencement, and I suppose you have a fine job 
all salted away for autumn delivery. What are 
you going to do with yourself, Willie? ” 

All the joy went out of Willie’s face. His eyes 
sought the floor. “ I—I—I—I haven’t anything 
in prospect, Roy,” he said gloomily. 

“ You’re too particular, Willie. A fellow 
can’t always get the job he wants just at the 
start.” 

“ I can’t get any job at all, Roy. That’s the 
hard part of it.” 

“ Get out! A boy with your ability and with 
a high school diploma and with your good record 
as a student! Of course you can get a job. 
You’re too particular, that’s all.” 

“ If only that was the case, Roy, I’d be the 





20 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


happiest fellow in the world. But it isn’t a mat¬ 
ter of being particular. I can’t get any job at 
all.” 

Poor Willie looked so sober that Roy laughed 
outright. Then, seeing the hurt look on Willie’s 
face, he said: “ Forgive me, Willie. But you 
pulled such a funny face I just couldn’t help 
laughing. And anyway, I know you’re mistaken. 
Why, business men everywhere are constantly on 
the lookout for bright young fellows like you, 
Willie.” 

For a long time Willie was silent. “ Perhaps 
they are,” he admitted gloomily. “ But they 
want them lar—lar ”—he appeared almost to 
choke over the word—“ they want them larger.” 

“ Well, I’ll be switched,” cried Roy, getting to 
his feet in indignation. “If that doesn’t beat 
the band. As though size had anything to do 
with a fellow’s ability. I just can’t believe it, 
Willie. Plave you really tried to get a place? ” 

“ Tried? Why, Roy, I’ve applied to every 
business man in Central City for a job. And 
they all tell me the same thing. They’re willing 
to hire me as an errand boy or to cut grass or 
weed onions, but not one of them wanted to give 
me a job worth anything.” 

“ Did they tell you so? Are you sure you 
didn’t imagine all this? ” 




AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 


21 


“ Absolutely. Why, old man Gulliver, who 
owns the big department store, told me flatly that 
he couldn’t afford to put me behind a counter be¬ 
cause his customers would be offended by being- 
waited upon by a boy. Nothing I could say 
would make him change his mind. He said the 
customers would judge by appearances.” 

“ Why, Willie, those men are crazy. There 
isn’t a keener boy in Central City than you. 
Great guns! Those fellows know how the Wire¬ 
less Patrol captured the German dynamiters at 
the Elk City reservoir, and they know that you 
were one of the four boys that Captain Hardy 
picked from the entire patrol, to track those fel¬ 
lows to their lair. What do you suppose Captain 
Hardy did that for, anyway? Your size cer¬ 
tainly was against you in that desperate business. 
And it was your brains alone that finally brought 
success to us. And everybody in Central City 
knows about our search here in New York dur¬ 
ing the war for the secret wireless. Great 
heavens! Does anybody suppose you would have 
been one of the four fellows selected for that 
job if you hadn’t had brains? Why, Willie, the 
Secret Service really owes it to you that they 
were able to find the secret wireless and nab the 
German spy who was operating it.” 

At the words Secret Service, Willie looked up. 


22 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

“ There’s what I’d like to do,” he said, “ but I’ll 
never get a chance.” 

“ What? Secret Service work? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ I can’t think of anybody I ever knew who is 
better qualified for that sort of work, Willie. 
Y^ou had us all skinned a mile when it came to 
tracking and trailing and observing things. The 
rest of us were a bunch of blind men alongside 
of you. Nothing ever was missed by you; and 
you never forgot anything you saw. And you 
almost always knew what things meant, too. We 
would all see something and the rest of us would 
stand looking at it like a set of wooden men, and 
you would tell us what it meant. Honest, Willie, 
those Central City business men are so stupid 
they’re funny.” 

“ Maybe they are,” said Willie, ruefully, “ but 
laughing at them won’t help me to get a job.” 

“ Did you ever try to do any detective work in 
Central City? ” 

“ Of course I didn’t. You know how much 
chance there is to do that sort of thing in a little 
town like Central City. Why, people would 
have thought I was nutty for sure. They would 
have thought I had been reading dime novels.” 

“ Guess you are right, Willie, and it’s a good 
thing you didn’t attempt it. Yet I’m sure you 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 23 

have the qualifications. I hadn’t thought about 
you in that connection before; but I can see how 
your ability fits you for the work. You remem¬ 
ber the time we discovered some smuggling tak¬ 
ing place aboard this very boat-” 

“ The time you discovered it,” corrected 
Willie. 

“No interruptions now. I have the floor. 
You remember I wrote you about the smuggling. 
One of the Secret Service men that came to in¬ 
vestigate the matter said that good detective 
work was nothing but close observation, correct 
thinking, and persistence. And I believe it. 

And I never knew anvbodv that could hold a 

«/ •/ 

candle to you for close observation.” 

“ I wish I could believe it,” sighed Willie. 

“ Well, it’s true, and sooner or later you’ll get 
a chance to use your powers of observation the 
way you want to. But in the meantime, don’t 
you worry about a job. We’ll make this trip to 
Galveston and back, and we’ll have a corking 
good time. And when we come back I’ll try to 
get you a job. You’re a mighty good wireless 
man for an amateur, and with a little help I can 
give you, you’d soon be competent to take a 

j° b ” 

“ Gee! If you could get me a. job, Roy, I’d be 
grateful to you to my dying day. I don’t care 



24 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


what it is. I’d take anything, so it was a job. 
Later on I could perhaps find just the sort of job 
I want. And you needn’t be afraid to recom¬ 
mend me, Roy. I’d make good.” 

“ Of course you would. There isn’t any ques¬ 
tion about that. And anyway, I wouldn’t want 
to get a fellow a job if I thought he wouldn’t 
make good.” 

Just then the door of the wireless house 
opened, and a grinning, white-headed, old darky 
thrust his head through the doorway. “ De 
puhsuh’s compliments, Mr. Mercer, and he say 
could you help him a bit he’d be ’bliged to you.” 

“ Tell the purser I’ll be with him in a moment. 
And hold on, Sam. Just step in here. I want 
you to know my old friend, Mr. Brown. We 
went to school together and have been friends all 
our lives. Willie is going to make the next trip 
with us, Sam, and there isn’t anything on this 
boat too good for him. Do you understand? ” 

“ ’Deed I does, Mr. Mercer. ’Deed I does, 
suh. It’s a pleasure to do anything for a friend 
of yours, Mr. Mercer.” And the grinning darky 
advanced and shook Willie’s proffered hand with 
seeming pleasure. 

“ Thank you, Sam. Thank you. Please tell 
Mr. Robbins that I’ll be there in a moment.” 

The colored steward withdrew. Roy turned to 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 


25 


Willie. “ I’m sorry, Willie,” he said, “ but I 
shall have to leave you for a little while. I of¬ 
fered to help the purser with some manifests, as 
soon as I had my telegrams off. He doesn’t 
know you are here, of course, or he wouldn’t have 
sent Sam up.” 

“ I notice you are aces high on this ship, Roy,” 
said Willie. “ And I understand it all right 
enough. It’s that old trick of yours of being nice 
to everybody. No wonder they all like you.” 

“ You understand about this matter, Willie, 
don’t you?” replied Roy, ignoring his friend’s 
remark. “ I’m just as sorry as I can be that I 
have to leave you. It’ll take me an hour or two 
with the purser. Just make yourself at home. 
As soon as I get done, I’ll show you the wireless 
outfit, as you asked me to. Ought to have done 
it right off, anyway. You’ll excuse me, won’t 
you, Willie? ” 

“ Beat it,” said Willie. “ You don’t owe me 
any excuses. I’m a million times obliged to you 
merely for the opportunity to be here, let alone 
being entertained. I’ll take a stroll while you’re 
helping the purser. I’ll be back in a couple of 
hours or so.” 

Roy accompanied his guest to the pier, made 
sure that the men on guard would know him so 
that Willie would have no difficulty in getting 


26 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


back aboard the ship, and hurried away to the 
purser’s office. 

Once on land, Willie drew a little to one side, 
out of the way of the traffic, to take a good look 
about him. Wonderful was the scene that 
greeted his eye. Although Willie lived in central 
Pennsylvania, the scene was familiar enough to 
him. As Roy had said, Willie was one of the 
four members of the Wireless Patrol who had 
spent some time in New York during the war, 
running down the secret wireless of a German 
spy. During that visit he had become well ac¬ 
quainted with New York—had had to become 
well acquainted with it, in fact, as part of the 
preparation for the work to be done. So now 
he felt entirely at home. 

Yet always he was thrilled by the sight of the 
teeming activities of this great, roaring city. Be¬ 
ing from an inland town, he especially liked the 
water-front, and all its suggestive activities. The 
coming and going of huge, laden drays and trucks, 
with their mysterious bales and boxes, always 
fired his imagination. What was in these com¬ 
monplace containers, and whence had it come or 
whither might it be going? To what strange 
lands might not some of these packages of mer¬ 
chandise eventually come, and in what curious 
ways might they not travel? Chinese sampans 



AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 


27 


might eventually bear some of these goods up 
brawling Chinese rivers; camel trains might carry 
them over the burning desert; elephants might 
convey a portion of this merchandise through 
Indian jungles or long safaris of African porters 
struggle through the dark continent with some 
part of these products on their heads. 

Always it fired Willie’s imagination to see this 
stirring life along the water-front. And a power¬ 
ful imagination was one of Willie’s most precious 
gifts. It was this imagination that had given him 
the power Roy ascribed to him of being able to 
interpret things correctly, for Willie did possess 
that ability in an astonishing degree. Constantly 
his imagination was at play, working upon any¬ 
thing that caught his eye; just as now, in the 
things that most of those passing near him saw 
only as boxes or bundles, he was seeing camel 
trains crossing the desert, and other sights 
equally delightful. 

No wonder Willie loved this wonderful water¬ 
front, with its argosies from the seven seas; and 
no wonder that now, after gazing for a time at 
the flow of traffic before him, he darted across the 
street and turned south toward the Battery. 
Powerful memories drew him that way. ITe 
must see once more the State Island ferry, by 
which he had so often journeyed to Staten Island 


28 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


during that never-to-be-forgotten spy hunt. 
And the Aquarium, with its unbelievably odd 
and curious fish life; the fire-boat, lying ready to 
dash off to a blaze at a second’s notice; the har¬ 
bor police-station, with its trim little police boat; 
and in the distance that grand old memorial of 
the thing he and all his fellow Americans had so 
desperately fought for—Liberty—all these 
things and a hundred others drew him along the 
water-front as irresistibly as a magnet draws a 
needle. 

Slowly he made his way along, passing from 
pier to pier, reveling in everything he saw, yet 
always eager to go a bit farther and see a bit 
more. So he made his way along the Hudson, 
through old Battery Park, past the ferry land¬ 
ing and on to the East River front. How he 
delighted in the East River front! Here were 
assembled the old and the odd and the curious 
water-craft. In place of the majestic ocean 
liners, Willie here found public docks full of 
canal-boats. And here were sailing vessels, with 
their masts towering aloft. And, of course, there 
were innumerable steamships, too, though the 
East River was too cramped to accommodate the 
largest. But it was the sailing ships and the 
canal-boats that most attracted Willie. 

Presently he came to an open pier that fairly 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 


29 


gripped him. No moving-picture show, no story¬ 
book, no tale of mouth, ever was more fascinating 
than the scene on this pier. Canal-boats lay in 
the dock, dozens and dozens of them. And sail¬ 
ing ships were moored near by, to add pictur¬ 
esqueness to the view. River-craft of all sorts 
were plowing the East River. Up-stream a lit¬ 
tle way ferry-boats were shuttling back and forth 
to Brooklyn. Occasionally a big steamer passed 
by. Long strings of canal-boats, towed by tugs, 
forged slowly along. Innumerable lighters, con¬ 
voyed by other puffing tugs, buffeted the waves. 
Floats, hearing laden freight-cars, went clumsily 
past. Occasional motor-boats scooted noisily bv, 
and even a lone oarsman in a rowboat was visible, 
working his way against the current. 

Out on the pier went Willie. Fascinated, 
he gazed about him. How the stirring life 
before him stimulated and thrilled him. In¬ 
deed, he hardly felt like the little country 
lad who had just come to New York to 
take a steamship voyage as the guest of an 
old chum. His spirit was like the eagle’s. He 
soared over vast distances, and saw strange lands. 
He was a globe-trotter, a world traveler. And in 
truth, Willie actually saw more of the world, 
standing on that East River pier than some folks 
do who circle it; for there be many who, having 


30 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


eyes, see not. Indeed, Willie not only saw, but 
also heard and even smelled and tasted; for the 
wind was bringing to him the delicious aroma 
from the near-by coffee-roasting establishments, 
and the ravishing odor of freshly made cocoa, and 
the scent of perfumes, and other odd and curious 
smells so typical of this part of old New Y r ork. 
Willie had read of the perfumes of the Orient, 
but he doubted if they were any more pleasing 
than some of the odors that now assailed his nos¬ 
trils. 

Presently Willie became conscious of the fact 

that he was tired. He had been on his feet a long 

time, for he had stood on the pier for two or three 

hours before the Lycoming docked. The paving- 

stones and the wooden planks of the pier sud- 

denlv felt very hard to his feet. He sought for 

a place to rest. At one side of the pier some 

lumber was piled. Willie made his way to it. 

At the river end there was a sort of little recess 

in the pile, where some short lengths of board 

had been put in the centre of the lumber. A 

projecting plank or two made a comfortable seat. 

Willie sank down in this snug nook with a sigh 

of relief and comfort. His feet were really very 

tired. He found the wind was shut off bv the 

•/ 

lumber, too, and that was welcome, for the day 
was far along and it was growing cool. In per- 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 31 

feet comfort Willie now sat in his little retreat, 
watching the river life before him. Without real¬ 
izing' it, Willie had chosen an observation post 
where he could hardly be observed himself, so 
well was he snuggled down among the project¬ 
ing lengths of lumber. 

As the afternoon waned, the activities on the 
pier almost ceased. In fact, the place was prac¬ 
tically deserted. Out toward the end of the pier 
Willie had casually noticed an old fellow who 
was aimlessly walking about. Pie appeared to be 
a tramp. Willie would never have given him a 
second thought had the man not suddenly dis¬ 
appeared. Willie was not watching him, and in 
fact was not directly conscious of the man’s pres¬ 
ence on the pier; yet suddenly Willie’s subcon¬ 
sciousness told him that something was missing 
from the picture before him. That startled 
Willie into conscious mental effort. What was 
that something and why had it disappeared? 

Now Willie brought into play that mental gift 
he had used to such good effect in the hunt for 
the German dynamiters at Elk City. His com¬ 
rades of the Wireless Patrol always said that 
Willie had a mental photograph in his head of 
anything he had ever looked at. Pie did, too. 
Perhaps everybody has. But Willie was able 
to visualize a scene as few people are able. He 


32 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


could see not only the broad outlines of a remem¬ 
bered picture, but also the minute details. And 
that ability, originally native, had been devel¬ 
oped to a wonderful degree by practice. Lack¬ 
ing size, Willie had taken the only possible means 
of putting himself on a par with his fellows. He 
had developed his wits. 

So now, startled through his subconsciousness, 
he sat bolt upright and began to concentrate on 
the problem before him. Something had sud¬ 
denly disappeared from the picture. What was 
it? He drove his memory over the back track, 
and presently he saw the old tramp wandering 
about. And he was able to remember even the 
very spot where he had last seen the tramp. 
Willie gave a sigh of relief when he made this 
discoverv, for he was troubled lest the old fellow 
might have tumbled overboard. He was certain 
he had last seen the man just beside a big pile of 
boxes near the centre of the pier. 

For a moment Willie dismissed the matter 
from his mind. Then into his head popped the 
question: “Why did that tramp disappear so 
suddenly? ” 

Again Willie was afire with a problem. He 
turned the matter over in a hundred wavs, and 
at length decided that the tramp had crawled into 
the pile of boxes, even as he, Willie, had snug- 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 


33 


gled down among the lumber, for rest. Likely 
the old fellow had found a snug berth to catch a 
little sleep. More than likely there were tarpau¬ 
lins there, and the fellow had crawled into a 
bunch of them. They would both keep him warm 
and make a fairly soft place to rest. Yes, that 
was undoubtedly the reason. Willie was satis¬ 
fied that he had solved the problem. He had no 
doubt that if he nosed about the pile of boxes, he 
would find the old fellow snug inside. But that 
was the last thing Willie thought of doing. Even 
a tramp had a right to sleep. 

Presently men began to gather on the pier 
again. Some of them came up over the side of 
the pier, from canal-boats in the dock. Others 
came from shore. Willie guessed at once that 
they were barge captains. At least, such men are 
called captains. They live on the barges with 
their families and look after the craft for the 
owners. Usually they are a rough set, and these 
particular canal-boat captains now gathering on 
the pier were no exception. Willie looked at 
them closely and decided that he would not want 
to be at their mercy if they were angry at him. 
They looked like a desperate lot, and Willie 
could not help feeling that they must be as des¬ 
perate as they looked. Certainly they led irre¬ 
sponsible lives, for they were here to-day and 


34 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


gone to-morrow, their homes being wherever fate 
and a cargo took their craft. How easy it would 
be for them to make away with an enemy. The 
water-front was dark and the rushing tide so near 
at hand. A silent blow, a quick push over the 
end of a pier, and there was the end of some one. 
And more than once, Willie knew, that had been 
the end of some one. He had read of such cases 
and heard of others. 

The more Willie thought about these men, the 
more interested he became in them. It was his 
old habit asserting itself. He had given rein to 
his imagination. And he was picturing to him¬ 
self the evil side of canal-boat life. And evil 
enough Willie knew it could be. More than once, 
when he was working to trace the secret wireless 
of that German spy, he had been told about the 
piratical river life led by some of these bargemen. 
Enormous amounts of property they carried in 
their barges, and not all of it, Willie knew, 
reached its rightful destination. 

While Willie was wondering about these 
things, his eyes were focused on the growing 
group of river-men before him. Suddenly he be¬ 
came aware that they were gathering in a circle. 
They were drawing close together, right beside 
the pile of boxes where Willie believed the tramp 
was curled up. Willie had had no interest in the 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 35 

tramp previously, but now he suddenly felt the 
keenest sympathy for him. Closer together drew 
the bargemen, and Willie could see that they 
were discussing something. Probably, he 
thought, they were plotting a robbery of some 
float or lighter. And if they were, and if they 
discovered the tramp concealed so close at hand, 
they would instantly suspect him of being an 
eavesdropper. And what they would do to him 
Willie did not even like to imagine. He hoped 
the tramp would keep quiet and lie low. 

Either the tramp was already asleep, or was 
possessed of discretion, for no sign of him was to 
be seen. Dusk was coming fast, and Willie 
should have returned to the Lycoming, but, like 
the tramp, he hated to move. Though he was at 
some distance from the gang of boatmen, they 
might nevertheless think he was spying on them. 
So he snuggled down closer than ever in the 
lumber pile and watched. Presently the group 
of bargemen broke up, and the various canal-boat 
captains and others started to go their separate 
ways. 

“ Don't forget,” Willie heard the man who had 
done most of the talking say. “ To-morrow 
night. And it will be rich pickings for some¬ 
body.” 

The speaker slid over the side of the pier to a 


36 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

canal-boat. To other boats and toward the street 
the other members of the gang made their way. 
In a few moments the pier was vacant. 

“ Now for the Lycoming ” thought Willie. 
“ Roy will think I’m lost.” 

He started to rise, then sank back quickly in 
his seat. Something was moving in the pile of 
boxes. Willie looked intently. A head v r as 
thrust quickly up among the boxes. It was the 
tramp. He took a quick look around, saw that 
the pier was deserted, and leaped from his place 
of concealment. Willie did the same. There 
was no reason why he should delay a moment 
longer in getting back to the Lycoming . But 
before he had taken a dozen paces, the tramp was 
beside him. The tramp opened a wallet and 
took out a crisp dollar bill. 

“ If you will send a telephone message for 
me,” he said, “ the change from this bill is 
yours.” 

“ Sure,” said Willie, too much astonished even 
to question the man. 

“ Run to the nearest ’phone. There’s one in 
that building over there. Call this number and 
say that Sheridan wants a man to help him at 
once in the neighborhood of South Street and 
Coenties Slip. If there’s any answer, try to find 
me. I’ll probably be in some of these sailors’ 


AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY 37 

hangouts along the water-front. There’ll be an¬ 
other dollar in it if you get me.” 

Into Willie’s hand the man thrust the crisp 
dollar bill and a piece of cardboard. Then he 
turned abruptly away and hurried up South 
Street. Willie shoved the bill into his pocket and 
took a look at the telephone number on the piece 
of pasteboard. Then he gave a sharp cry. The 
figures in his hand were the secret call of the 
United States Secret Service in New York. He 
knew that number because it had been given to 
him when he was engaged in the search for the 
secret wireless. 


CHAPTER II 

AN ADVENTURE WITH A SECRET SERVICE MAN 

W ILLIE was fairly paralyzed with aston¬ 
ishment. For a moment he stood staring* 
dumbly at the card in his hand. Then he com¬ 
prehended the situation. The man who had 
given him the cardboard was not a tramp, but a 
Secret Service agent; and his name was Sheri¬ 
dan. Something crooked was afoot among the 
bargemen, even as Willie had fancied might be 
the case. Sheridan was trailing the conspirators 
and needed help. At that thought, Willie’s in¬ 
decision dropped from him like a cloak. He 
must act. Like a shot he started for the place 
Sheridan had pointed out, where there was a 
public telephone. 

As he ran, he looked up South Street. The 
thoroughfare was full of vehicles and people. 
Still Willie could distinguish the bargemen from 
the remainder of the crowd, although they were 
now well up the street. Sheridan was not far 
away, and yet Willie had almost more difficulty 
in recognizing him than in distinguishing the 
bargemen farther up the street. Of course, there 

were several of the latter, and that made a dif- 

38 


4 


AN ADVENTURE 


39 


ference. Sheridan was a single individual. But 
Willie quickly divined why there was this differ¬ 
ence. Sheridan was keeping in close to the build¬ 
ings, where he was much less conspicuous than 
persons in the middle of the walk. 

Willie had no time to consider the matter, 
however, for he had reached the place where he 
was to telephone. He took a last, sharp look up 
the street, and saw the bargemen just entering a 
door. Willie tried to determine exactly which 
building they were entering. Then he turned 
and stepped through the door before him. 

He found himself in a typical South Street 
ship-chandlery. About him were ropes, com¬ 
passes, lanterns, rubber coats, chains, anchors, 
and other nautical equipment. A clerk stepped 
forward. 

“ Do you have a public telephone? ” inquired 
Willie. 

“ In the booth over there,” said the clerk, point¬ 
ing across the room. 

The clerk paid no further attention to Willie, 
who stepped into the booth, closed the door, 
dropped a nickel into the slot, and called his num¬ 
ber. Immediately came the reply. 

“ Sheridan wants a man to help him at once in 
the neighborhood of South Street and Coenties 
Slip,” said Willie. 


40 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

“ Is this Sheridan speaking? ” came the query. 

“ No. This is a messenger for Sheridan.” 

“ Hold the wire a moment, please.” And a 
little later the voice added: “ Tell Sheridan there 
isn’t a single operative here at present. We’ll 
send him help if anybody comes in.” 

Willie hung up the receiver but remained in 
the booth, thinking. Sheridan might need help 
badly. Those bargemen looked like a desperate 
lot. Yet the office could send him no aid. Pos¬ 
sibly he himself could give Sheridan some help. 
At that thought, Willie’s heart beat wildly. 
“ I’ll try,” said Willie to himself, “ and at any 
rate I must get the message to Sheridan.” 

He left the ship-chandler’s and hurried up 
South Street. Diligently he studied the moving 
crowd ahead of him. Nowhere could he see any 
one that resembled either the bargemen or the 
Secret Service man. Willie felt certain that the 
latter would be not far from the former. He was 
equally confident of his own ability to recognize 
the place the bargemen had entered. He cast 
about in his mind for possible ways to help Sheri¬ 
dan. Presently he became so excited that he 
found himself running. At once he took a grip 
on himself. 

“ This won’t do,” he muttered. “ Above all 
things you must not do anything to attract atten- 


AN ADVENTURE 


41 


tion to yourself. If you are going to be of any 
use to Sheridan, youTl have to make yourself as 
inconspicuous as possible.” At once Willie 
dropped to a walk and became a cipher in the 
mass of people moving along the sidewalk. Be¬ 
fore it seemed possible, he reached the building 
into which he was sure the bargemen had disap¬ 
peared. He knew it by its wooden awning and 
peculiar dormer-windows. 

Something about the place made it seem sin¬ 
ister and forbidding. The building was badly 
battered, as though it had had hard usage at the 
hands of hard men. Heavy curtains hung inside 
the lower sash of each window, as though to con¬ 
ceal something questionable within. 

If Willie was right, the bargemen were within 
this building. Possibly Sheridan was also, 
though it was quite as likely he might merely be 
in the neighborhood, keeping watch until the 
bargemen should come out. So Willie began to 
scout around for Sheridan. He looked in every 
likely place he could think of—every accessible 
place from which a man could see the door of the 
suspected house and not be easily seen himself. 
But nowhere could Willie find a trace of Sheri¬ 
dan. 

“ He’s in that house,” said Willie to himself. 
“ He wants to do more than merely follow those 


42 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


fellows. He wants to hear what they say. It’s 
uj) to me to go in and give him the message.” 

But here was a difficulty. How should he go 
about it? He might much better not deliver the 
message than do anything that would draw at¬ 
tention to Sheridan or possibly put him in dan¬ 
ger. Willie had no idea what sort of a place this 
building was. There was no sign outside to tell 
him, or rather the sign was so old and weather¬ 
beaten as to be actually undecipherable. It 
might be a private house, or a store, or a saloon, 
even though saloons were no longer supposed to 
exist. Or it might be a club or a shop or any one 
of a hundred things. Suppose he went in and 
did not see Sheridan? What was he to do? He 
mustn’t ask for him. That would give the whole 
thing away. And then there were his own clothes 
to be considered. If he went into a place like this 
tough looking house before him, dressed as he was 
now, with his shoes shined and his trousers 
creased, he would instantlv attract attention. He 
must find some way out of the difficulty. 

Willie was fairly at his wit’s end when some- 
body bumped into him. He wheeled about to 
see who had shoved him. It was a ragged newsy. 

“San! Woild! Joined!” shrieked the lad, 
paying no attention to Willie. 

For a moment Willie stood looking at the rag- 


AN ADVENTURE 


43 


amuflin. Then he sprang after him and touched 
him on the shoulder. “ Give you a dollar for your 
coat and papers, and trade you caps,” said Willie, 
briefly. 

The newsy looked at him in astonishment. 
“ What’s your game, pardner? ” he asked. 

“ Never mind,” said Willie with a smile. “ I’ve 
got use for just such a cap and coat. If I can 
get them from you, it will save me a trip to Bax¬ 
ter Street.” And Willie held out the crisp dollar 
bill Sheridan had given him. 

“ I guess you’re a wise guy all right,” com¬ 
mented the newsy. “ It’s a go.” 

He gave Willie his few papers. Then he 
shoved the dollar bill into his trousers’ pocket, 
peeled off his coat, and handed it to Willie. An 
exchange of caps followed. 

“ Much obliged to you,” said Willie. 

“ Hope they help you,” said the newsy. 
“Wish I knowed what your game is anyway. 
Me for Sheeny Ike’s now. I kin get a new coat 
and my supper and a night’s lodgin’ out o’ this 
dollar. So long.” 

Willie smiled good-bye. When the newsy 
turned away, he darted around the corner and 
bolted into the first vacant hallway he came to. 

The lad that emerged from that hallway a mo¬ 
ment later bore little resemblance to the boy who 


44 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


had entered it. The ragged old coat that Willie 
had obtained was many sizes too large for him, 
even as it had been for the newsy, and it ef¬ 
fectually concealed Willie’s own coat. His neat, 
well-creased trousers looked strangely at variance 
with the coat, but Willie remedied that in a mo¬ 
ment. Some ash cans stood by the curb. It took 
very little of the ashes to spoil the good appear¬ 
ance of both his trousers and his shoes. It came 
hard to Willie to soil his clothes this way, even 
though he knew the dust would brush out; for 
these were the best clothes he owned. A few 
smears of dirt on his face, and the old, torn cap 
completed the change so effectively that Willie 
would hardly have known himself could he have 
looked in a mirror. As for selling papers, that 
was nothing new at all for Willie. He had sold 
papers for years at home, when he was a bit 
younger. 

Satisfied that his appearance was right for the 
business in hand, Willie promptly entered the 
house. It proved to be just what Willie sus¬ 
pected—a saloon; though it was run under the 
guise of a coffee-house. Willie was satisfied of 
that the moment he entered the door. 

Before him he saw many small, round tables, 
with men seated about them. At a larger table 
in one corner were the bargemen. And Willie’s 


AN ADVENTURE 


45 


heart went pitapat when one of them looked at 
him and scowled savagely. But Willie felt re¬ 
assured when the man began to quarrel with one 
of his fellows. The scowl was evidently not 
meant for Willie. Nowhere could Willie dis¬ 
cover Sheridan. He was not able to see every 
one in the place, however, for some partitions ex¬ 
tended out a little way from the street wall where 
a partition wall had evidently been partly re¬ 
moved to enlarge the dining-room. He must get 
a look at the space shut off by these partitions. 

Quietly Willie began to move about among 
the tables, offering his papers for sale. All went 
well until a waiter, coming from the kitchen with 
a trajr of food, espied him. 

“ Get out of here,” he thundered. But, having 
his hands full, he could not chase the newsy out. 

“ Can’t a fellow get a bite to eat here? ” de¬ 
manded Willie. 

The waiter gave him a surly look. “ Be quick 
about it,” he said. “ This ain’t a kindergarten.” 

Willie walked rapidly past the jutting parti¬ 
tions, apparently looking for a vacant table. 
Every table was in use. But just behind one of 
the partitions was a table at which only one diner 
was seated. Willie hardly wanted to sit down at 
the same table, for the man was obviously drunk. 
He was slouched down in his chair, and his cap 


46 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


had slid far down over his face. Before him were 
some steaming platters of food. But when 
Willie stepped a little closer his reluctance sud¬ 
denly disappeared. He recognized the battered 
old clothes the drunken man was wearing. It 
was the same suit of clothes Willie had seen on 
the tramp that crawled out of the box pile on the 
pier. Willie comprehended the situation in a 
second. The bargemen were at the table imme¬ 
diately on one side of the partition, and the tramp 
at the table on the other side. He had picked out 
a spot where he could hear the bargemen, but 
could not be seen bv them. 

The tramp looked up sharply enough as Willie 
took the vacant seat opposite him. In a moment 
he apparently roused himself and began eating 
his supper. Willie saw plainly enough that Sheri¬ 
dan recognized him. But at first Willie made no 
effort to speak to him. Presently everybody 
seemed to be talking loudly at the same time, and 
the bargemen were quarreling noisily among 
themselves. There was a perfect babel of 
voices. 

“ There was nobody to send,” whispered Willie 
across the table. “ They will send help if any¬ 
body comes in.” 

The Secret Service man nodded comprehen¬ 
sion. “ Eat your supper and go out. Watch for 


AN ADVENTURE 


47 


somebody from the office. Wait for me,” whis¬ 
pered Sheridan. Then he went to eating noisily 
and paid no attention whatever to Willie. 

The latter ordered some coffee and doughnuts, 
ate them, paid the waiter, and went out. No¬ 
body paid the least attention to him. 

Once outside, Willie breathed freely again. 
Though nothing alarming had happened to him 
in the restaurant, he had been in a state of sup¬ 
pressed excitement all the time he was inside the 
place. Now he felt as though he could not keep 
quiet another instant. He wanted to run or 
shout or do something violent to give vent to his 
feelings. Yet he didn’t want to do anything that 
would draw undesirable attention to himself. 
Just then he thought of his papers. 

“Sun! Woild! Joined!” he cried, imitating 
as nearly as he could the gutter English of the 
newsies. He ran about among the crowd, now 
here, now there, crying his papers, but making 
few sales. 

Presently he worked off his excitement and 
suddenly he thought of Roy. “ Gee whiz! ” he 
muttered to himself. “ I forgot all about Roy. 
He’ll be bothered to death about me. He prob¬ 
ably will think I’ve gotten into trouble. I must 
telephone him at once.” 

He looked closely up and down the street, to 


48 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


see if any one in sight looked like a Secret Serv¬ 
ice man, then scurried along the street, looking 
for a telephone-booth. Soon he saw one in a 
shoj), and in another moment he was speaking to 
the watchman at the Lycoming 3 s pier. The 
watchman said he would tell Mr. Mercer that his 
friend was unavoidably delayed, but was all right, 
and would be home during the evening, and that 
Mr. Mercer should eat his supper without his 
friend. 

With his mind relieved about Roy, Willie re¬ 
turned to his vigil outside the evil-looking coffee¬ 
house. The street became deserted. Darkness 
had long since come and the street lamps had 
been lighted. It made Willie’s job both harder 
and easier. The deep shadows rendered conceal¬ 
ment easy. On the other hand, the stirring life 
of the city had disappeared. There was little of 
interest to arrest the attention, and Willie’s vigil 
grew tiresome enough. He kept his eyes open 
for passers-by who might prove to be possible 
helpers for Sheridan, but every one went briskly 
past, as though he had a definite destination and 
was in a hurry to reach it. 

To Willie it seemed as though it must be nearly 
midnight, though it was really scarcely eight 
o’clock, when a group of men came noisily out 
of the coffee-house and headed down South 


AN ADVENTURE 


49 


Street. Willie knew them instantly, though in 
the dim light he could not distinguish faces. 
They were the bargemen. He was almost 
minded to follow them. Then he thought better 
of it. Sheridan would trail them, if it were neces¬ 
sary. So Willie stood still in the shadowy hall¬ 
way where he was watching, and waited. In a 
few moments the tramp came out, and Willie 
was afraid the man really was intoxicated, so un¬ 
certainly did he start out. But when Willie ran 
up to him, crying, “ Paper! Sun! Woild! 
Joined!” the Secret Service man got control of 
his faculties quickly enough. 

“ Go round the corner,” he muttered, “ and 
meet me under the elevated.” 

Willie went on down the street, turned the 
corner, and walked to Pearl Street. There he 
waited in the shadow beside a pillar of the ele¬ 
vated railway. Presently Sheridan came round 
the other corner of the block and joined him. 

Willie was all afire with curiosity. He wanted 
to ask his companion a thousand questions, but 
had discretion enough to keep quiet. 

“ See here, kid,” said the Secret Service man. 
“ What’s your name? ” 

“ Willie Brown.” 

“ What part of town do you live in? ” 

“ I live in Central City, Pennsylvania. I’m 


50 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


just visiting in New York. Got here this after¬ 
noon.” 

The Secret Service man stopped and looked 
at his companion searchingly. 

“ Well, you’re the cleverest country kid I ever 
saw. What made you try to disguise yourself 
and slip your message to me so quietly, just as 
though I was doing detective work? ” 

“ Why, you are doing detective work,” said 
Willie. “ You’re a United States Secret Serv¬ 
ice man.” 

The man laughed. “ Whatever gave you such 
an idea? ” he said. 

“ The telephone number you gave me was the 
secret call of the Secret Service,” said Willie. 

Willie could feel his companion’s eyes fairly 
boring through him. “ Look here,” the man said. 
“ Where do you get all these funny ideas? ” 

“ You needn’t trv to deceive me,” said Willie. 
“ I know vou are a Secret Service man and I 
know you are watching those bargemen.” 

“If you know so much,” said the man, “ tell 
me how you know it.” 

“ That’s easy,” said Willie. “ I worked with 
the Secret Service myself during the war and I 
know their secret number. The minute you gave 
me that number I guessed what you were and 
what you were up to.” 


AN ADVENTURE 


51 


“ What did you ever do for the Secret Serv¬ 
ice? ” demanded Willie’s companion, plainly as¬ 
tonished. 

“ Do you remember the search for that 
German spy with the secret wireless? And do 
you remember that little bunch of boys from the 
Camp Brady Wireless Patrol that came here to 
help the Secret Service when you were so hard 
pressed? ” 

“ I sure do. Were you one of those fellows? ” 

“ Surest thing* you know,” said Willie. 

“ Well, shake hands. It’s no use to try to fool 
you any longer. I am a Secret Service man as 
you know. And I’m after that gang of canal 
boat men. I’m mightily obliged to you for your 
help to-night.” 

“ It was mighty little help I gave you,” said 
Willie, “ though I’d have been glad to help you 
if I could.” 

“ You were a good deal of help. A fellow 
always likes to know he has somebody near that 
he can rely on. Nothing turned up, to be sure, 
but if those fellows had tumbled to who I was, 
I’d have needed you all right enough—and a 
whole platoon of cops beside.” And the Secret 
Service man chuckled. 

“What—what are those bargemen up to?” 
asked Willie, with some hesitation. 



52 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ Wool smuggling. The case doesn’t amount 
to much itself, but it may help us to solve some 
matters that do amount to a great deal. But 
you haven’t told me yet how you got those old 
rags you have on and how you found me.” 

“ That’s easy,” laughed Willie. “ I watched 
the bargemen go up the street until they turned 
in at the coffee-house. So I felt sure I knew 
where you would be. And after I had telephoned 
to the office and gotten an answer for you, I came 
across a ragged newsy. I knew my own clothes 
might attract attention in a place like that coffee¬ 
house, and I gave the newsy your dollar bill for 
his outfit. That’s how I became a newsy my¬ 
self.” 

“ Well, you’ve got a lot of sense, kid. You’d 
make a good Secret Service man yourself.” 

“ Do you really think so? ” cried Willie, his 
heart beginning to beat fast. 

“ Haven’t any doubt of it.” 

“ Do you think I could get a job with the 
Secret Service? ” 

“ See here. Have you been reading dime 
novels? ” 

“ No, indeed. But I would like to be a Secret 
Service man more than anything else I know of.” 

“ I don’t believe vou’d have much chance. 
You know the government wants only experi- 


AN ADVENTURE 


53 


enced, trustworthy operatives for the Secret 
Service. And besides, you’re too young. When 
you grow up, you might work into something of 
that sort.” 

Willie’s hopes fell with a crash. There was 
the same old difficulty again. He was too small. 
He could hardly keep the tears back, as he re¬ 
plied, “ But why should a fellow’s size make any 
difference? ” 

“ Who said it did? ” replied the Secret Service 
man. “ I said you were too young, not too 
small. Now, after you get into high school and 
finish your course there, you might have a show 
to become an office boy.” 

“ Get into high school! ” cried Willie. “ Why, 
I was graduated from high school last June. 
You think I’m just a kid because I’m so—so 
little.” 

“ The deuce you say! A high school graduate. 
Well, you don’t look it.” 

“ Yes,” said Willie, seeing that he must strike 
now, while the iron was hot. “And I was grad¬ 
uated with honors. I’ve had pretty good experi¬ 
ence with wireless and I can send and receive 
almost as fast as a professional. You know 
about our work here in finding the secret wire¬ 
less. Before we helped in that spy hunt, we ran 
down some German dynamiters up in Pennsyl- 


54 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


vania, we fellows of the Wireless Patrol, and I 
had a hand in that. You see, I’ve had some ex¬ 
perience already, and I’m sure I can learn fast. 
Isn’t there any job I could get with the Secret 
Service? ” 

“ They might take you on as an office boy,” 
suggested Sheridan. 

Office boy! There it was again. The same 
difficulty Willie had been bumping into ever since 
his graduation. Everybody thought he was fit 
only to be an office boy. His face grew very 
dark. 

“ What’s the use of going to school and study¬ 
ing hard,” he cried, “ if all the benefit you get 
from it is to qualify as an office boy. Why, I 
could have had a job as an office boy years 
ago.” 

The detective’s face hardened a bit. " I began 
at the bottom myself,” he said, “ and so far as I 
know, so did every other operative in the service.” 

“ You don’t understand,” cried Willie. “ I 
don’t mean that I am unwilling to begin at the 
bottom. But being an office boy is another 
thing.” 

“ Not necessarily,” said the detective. “ They 
can’t take anybody into the government Secret 
Service as an operative until they are sure of his 
ability and honesty. If you can get a job in the 


AN ADVENTURE 


55 


office, you’ll get a chance to show what’s in you. 
And if you are cut out to be a detective, I don’t 
know of any better way to get into the United 
States Secret Service.” 

Willie still looked rueful. “ It wouldn’t sur¬ 
prise me,” he said bitterly, “ if I couldn’t even get 
a job as an office boy.” 

“ Maybe you wouldn’t want to be a Secret 
Service man after all, if you knew a little better 
what is involved in the work. It isn’t all fun and 
it isn’t all as easy as this little trick of to-day. 
It’s always dangerous, and sometimes it’s hard 
and disagreeable.” 

“ But how am I ever to know what it is like, if 
I can’t get a chance to try rr^ hand at it? ” 

Detective Sheridan looked at Willie long and 
searchingly. “ I believe you’re a good lad,” he 
said, “ and I believe you would make good. You 
showed me to-day that you have some stuff in 
you. I didn’t need your help, but if I had needed 
it, I believe you would have stuck to me.” 

“ Of course I would! ” cried Willie. 

“ So I am indebted to you, anyway, for it’s 
quite evident that you didn’t try to serve me just 
for the money I offered you. In fact, you spent 
what I gave you, and I haven’t yet given you the 
other dollar I promised you.” And Detective 
Sheridan reached for his pocket. 


56 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

“ Keep your money,” said Willie. “ I won’t 
take it. I didn’t take the first dollar because I 
wanted it, but because I was so astonished when 
you gave me that telephone number that I forgot 
about everything else.” 

“ It’s evident that you don’t belong in New 
York,” said the detective with a smile, as he 
thrust his wallet back into his coat pocket. “ If 
you won’t take money, perhaps I can repay you 
in a way you will like even better. We’re going 
to grab this wool-smuggling barge captain to¬ 
morrow. How’d you like to have a hand in 
that? ” 

“ Do you mean it? ” 

“ Sure. You’ve had a hand in the case, and 
you might as well be in at the finish.” 

“ That will be bully! ” cried Willie. “ What 
do you want me to do? ” 

“ Go home and keep your mouth shut. And 
by the way, where are you staying? ” 

“ I’m a guest on board the Confederated liner 
Lycoming” 

“ The deuce you are! That’s Captain Lans- 
ford’s boat. We had a case over there some time 
back. Some Mexicans tried to smuggle in some 
stuff. The police got them red-handed, but we 
went over to make a further investigation. 
They’ve got a slick young wireless man on that 


AN ADVENTURE 


57 


ship. I believe he discovered the smugglers at 
work.” 

“ That’s Roy Mercer!” cried Willie, with 
pride. “ I’m his guest. We’re both members of 
the Camp Brady Wireless Patrol, and he was 
one of the fellows who helped run down the se¬ 
cret wireless here in New York.” 

“ I understand he’s a good one. The purser 
was telling me how he saved the Lycoming by 
wireless from colliding with another steamer in 
a fog.” 

“You bet he’s a good one,” said Willie, 
loyally. 

“ Well,” said the detective, “ I’ll see you to¬ 
morrow in time for our little party. Good-bye.” 

“ Where shall I meet you? ” 

“ Oh! I have some business in your neighbor¬ 
hood and I’ll stop for you some time in the late 
afternoon. Good luck to you. Take care of 
yourself. And remember not to give the thing 
away. We want to get these wool smugglers 
right.” 


CHAPTER III 


A TIP BY WIRELESS 

S O elated was Willie at the prospect of taking 
a further part in the wool smuggling case 
that he forgot his tattered appearance until he 
reached the Lycoming's pier and attempted to 
enter it. Then he was brought up sharp by the 
curt query of the watchman: “What do you 
want? ” 

At first Willie did not comprehend why he 
was halted so peremptorily. But when he re¬ 
membered about his ragged coat and torn cap he 
understood readily enough. He laughed, and 
stripping off his coat and cap, said: “No wonder 
you didn’t know me. I’m the fellow from Penn¬ 
sylvania that’s visiting Mr. Mercer. He intro¬ 
duced us when I went out and I telephoned you 
to tell Mr. Mercer I couldn’t get back to supper. 
Don’t you remember me? ” 

“ Sure I know ye now,” said the watchman, 
“ but whativer be ye doin’ in thim togs? ” 

“ Oh! I gave a newsy some money to get him- 

68 


A TIP BY WIRELESS 


59 


self a better coat with,” laughed Willie, “ and he 
gave me the old one. I put it on to see how I’d 
look.” 

“ Well, it does not improve your appearance,” 
replied the watchman, “ and if ye want to keep 
out of trouble ye’d better wear it on a clothes 
hook in your cupboard, so ye had. Wliativer 
happened to your pants, lad? ” 

“ I bumped into an ash can on the sidewalk,” 
said Willie. 

The watchman chuckled. “ Look out ye don’t 
buy no goold bricks,” he said. 

“ I’ll be careful,” laughed Willie, and he went 
on down the pier. “ He takes me for a greeny,” 
he said to himself. 

Willie boarded the Lycoming and hustled up 
to the wireless house. But before entering, he 
once more put on his newsy’s coat and cap. Then 
he opened the door and stepped in. 

“ Hello, Roy,” he called. 

“ Hello, yourself,” replied Roy. He was busy 
at his wireless and for a moment he did not look 
up. “ Glad you got back. Whatever kept 
you? ” 

Willie closed the door and stood where the 
light shone full on him. He remained there 
grinning, until Roy glanced around at him. 

“ What in the mischief happened to your 


60 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


clothes, Willie? ” exclaimed Roy, springing to 
his feet. 

“ Nothing,” said Willie gravely. “ This is my 
favorite disguise. I’m Hawkshaw, the detective, 
you know. Been out trailing thieves.” 

“ What’s all this nonsense? ” demanded 
Roy. “ What happened to you? Get into a 
fight? ” 

Willie told him all about his adventure of the 
afternoon. 

“ Well, I’ll be switched,” said Ro} r . “ First 
thing you know, you’ll be doing real Secret Serv¬ 
ice work.” 

“ To-morrow,” said Willie. “ We’re going to 
close in on those fellows and pinch them to-mor¬ 
row.” 

“ Get out! ” said Roy. “ You’re kidding me.” 

“Fact!” replied Willie. And he told his 
friend about the plan to nab the wool smugglers 
on the following day. 

“ Sounds good,” said Roy. “ But what I don’t 
understand is why they let you in on it.” 

“ That’s candy for good behavior,” said Willie. 
“You know they always give children sweet¬ 
meats when they’re good.” But there was a bit¬ 
ter tone to the joke. 

“ What do you mean, Willie? ” 

“ It’s the same old story, Roy.” And now 


A TIP BY WIRELESS 


61 


Willie ’s voice was full of bitterness. “ I helped 
Sheridan out, and I believe I did as well as most 
men would have done. But when I spoke to him 
about a job, I got the same old answer: ‘ You’re 
too small.’ ” 

“ Did he really tell you that, Willie? I should 
think your size would almost be a help to you in 
Secret Service work. You can pass for a small 
boy so readily. And small boys can be mighty 
useful in detective work, because nobody pays 
much attention to them.” 

“ He didn’t exactly say that, Roy. He put it 
even worse. He said that after I had gotten into 
high school and finished a course there, and had 
grown up a bit, then there might be an opening 
for me in the Secret Service as an ”—Willie 
hung his head—“ as an office boy! What do you 
think of that, Roy? Isn’t it tough to be so 
small? ” 

Roy ignored the question. “ I’ll say that’s 
bully! ” he cried. “ It doesn’t make a particle of 
difference where you find an entrance, Willie, so 
you get in. If you still want to be a Secret Serv¬ 
ice man, take the office boy job. They’ll find out 
soon enough that you’re more than an office boy. 
Take any chance you can find to get into the 
service, even if you have to start by sweeping 
floors and washing windows.” 


62 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ It’s all very well for you to say that, Roy. 
But vou never did it vourself. You never had a 
bit of trouble to land a job, and you got a full- 
sized man’s job when you were only through 
high school. I’ve gone through high school, too, 
and I can hardly get a boy’s job.” 

“ You don’t look at it right, Willie. There 

are thousands of men in the countrv who can’t 

•/ 

get any jobs at all. And they are known to be 
experienced. Nobody knows what you can do 
—except the fellows of the Wireless Patrol. We 
all know you’re a wiz, Willie. You take my ad¬ 
vice and grab this office boy job. Then you can 
show them what you can do. And once they 
know, you’ll get your chance all right enough. 
Why, the world is crying out for fellows who can 
deliver the goods.” 

“ But I don’t have any assurance that I can 
get even an office boy’s job, Roy. Sheridan just 
told me that maybe, if I grew bigger, I might 
have a chance.” 

“ Now see here, Willie. You’ll go nutty if 
you keep harping on that old string. You’ve 
been out of high school two or three months, and 
because you haven’t been made president of the 
United States yet, you go around snuffling like 
a fellow with hay-fever. Cut it out. You’ll get 
your chance, and you’ll make good when you do. 



A TIP BY WIRELESS 


63 


But don’t get everybody sore on you in the mean¬ 
time. Now tell me what you are going to do 
about those wool smugglers to-morrow.” 

“ Gee! I wish I knew. I don’t know a thing 
about it except what I have already told you. I 
don’t know how or where they smuggled in the 
wool, or how Sheridan intends to nab them. All 
I know is that he said I could go along.” 

“ Maybe it will be your chance, Willie.” 

“ If it is, I’ll be ready for it. Now won’t you 

show me vour wireless? ” 

«/ 

They turned to the shining instruments on 
Roy’s operating table. Eagerly Willie ex¬ 
amined each instrument from key to aerial. 
“ They’re fine! ” he cried. “ Gee! It must be 
bully to work with such a set.” 

“ Try it,” smiled Roy. “ Maybe you can pick 
up something interesting.” 

Eagerly Willie plumped himself down in the 
operator’s chair, adjusted the receivers to his 
ears, threw over the switch and began to tune in. 
And as suddenly he snatched off the headpiece 
and jumped from the chair. 

“ I’ll couple up my own receivers, Roy,” he 
said, “ and then we can both listen in.” 

Willie dragged his heavy suit case out, threw 
open the cover, and quickly uncoupled the re¬ 
ceivers from the wireless outfit in the case. In a 


64 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

moment he and Roy had coupled this additional 
headpiece to the Lycoming’s outfit. Roy drew 
up another chair, and the two sat down at the 
table and adjusted their headpieces. Roy con¬ 
siderately let Willie work the instruments, giv¬ 
ing him, from time to time, such directions as 
seemed necessary. 

When first Willie threw over the switch and 
began to tune in, the air seemed like a very bed¬ 
lam. The headpieces screeched and wailed. In¬ 
numerable buzzings sounded. Spoken words 
could distinctly be heard. Yet the whole was an 
undecipherable jargon. But once Willie had 
gauged his instruments correctly, he soon made 
harmony out of discord. He was really a very 
good operator for an amateur, and he quickly 
began to pick up individual messages and shut 
out waves of conflicting length. Delighted, he 

i 

listened to operator after operator, tuning in, 
now to messages in one wave-length, now to those 
in another. 

“ That’s the Brooklyn Navy Yard,” said Roy, 
as a powerful, whining note suddenly shrieked 
through the air. “ They’re calling for the coast¬ 
guard cutter Modoc . And that’s Cape May call¬ 
ing. I’d know both those calls in my sleep. I get 
so close to both those stations that the operators 
almost seem to be in the cabin here with me.” 


A TIP BY WIRELESS 


65 


“ You called Cape May the time you rescued 
Alec, didn’t you? He wrote us about it.” 

“ Yes; we had to get a tug to tow his boat into 
Cape May Harbor after we had picked it up.” 

After they had listened in silence for a few 
moments Roy said, “ That’s the New York Mar¬ 
coni Station,” as another powerful wireless voice 
spoke out. “ Isn’t that operator a peach? He 
can send like a streak. Just listen to him.” 

Now they heard ships at sea, first one and then 
another. The Mallory liner Lampasas, some¬ 
where off the Atlantic Coast, was sending out 
messages for passengers. Nearer at hand, an¬ 
other coastwise steamer, the Cherokee, of the 
Clyde Line, was calling her New York office. 
From far out on the ocean came other voices. 
The White Star liner Majestic, largest vessel 
afloat, was relaying commercial messages re¬ 
ceived from ships far behind her on the highway 
from Europe to America. The Cunarder 
Ber eng aria was informing its New York office 
about some repairs made to its bow plates after 
a slight collision off the English coast. The 
Kroonland was shrieking out a call for the City 
of Paris, but getting no reply. Very, very 
faintly sounded in their receivers a whispering- 
message from the Atlantic Transport steamer 
Minnetonka. 


66 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ She must be far out on the ocean,” said Roy, 
after he had told Willie what ship was calling. 
“We can barely hear her.” 

For a long time they sat silent before the wire¬ 
less table, listening to the myriad voices in the 
air. Then a step was heard, and the door of the 
wireless house opened. The purser appeared at 
the door. 

“ Come in,” cried Roy, and he was about to 
snatch the receivers from his head and jump up 
to welcome his visitor, when a message that was 
sounding in his ear held him motionless. 
“ Watch for J. Simonski. Diamonds,” said the 
message. 

“ Did you hear that, Willie? ” called Roy. 
“ That’s a message from the White Star liner 
Majestic . It’s from a treasury agent aboard, 
and he’s tipping off the Secret Service here to 
watch for a smuggler named Simonski. They’ll 
nab that gentleman at the pier, when he tries to 
bring his diamonds ashore.” 

“ Is that how they do it? ” cried Willie. 
“ Why, that’s as easy as rolling off a log.” 

“ Yes—after you know how,” said Roy. 
“ The agent on the ship has somehow got to find 
out that Simonski has the diamonds, before he 
can inform on him.” 

“ And that,” said Willie, “ is a gray horse 


A TIP BY WIRELESS 67 

of another color. Gee I I wonder how he did 
it.” 

Roy threw down his receivers, and rose to wel¬ 
come the purser. Willie switched off his instru¬ 
ment and followed Roy’s example. He was in¬ 
troduced to the purser. Presently Roy turned 
another switch, juggled some buttons on a black 
box, and music began to sound. At one end of 
his table, partly concealed by a screen-like parti¬ 
tion, was a radio outfit. The purser had come up 
to listen to the evening’s radio entertainment and 
Roy had tuned in to WJZ, the broadcasting sta¬ 
tion at Newark. Presently Sam brought some 
cakes and hot coffee, and the three friends sat 
for a long time listening to the music. Then the 
purser went down to his quarters, and Willie and 
Roy crowded into Roy’s bunk. But it was a long 
time before Willie could get to sleep. He was 
thinking of the morrow, and what it might pos¬ 
sibly mean to him. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 

XCEPT for the watchman, not a soul was 



A—/ astir about the Lycoming when Willie 
awoke the next morning. Eagerly he rose and 
dressed. Even with a multitude of interesting 
things about him to occupy the hours, he could 
hardly wait to resume the pursuit of the wool 
smugglers. But somehow he managed to pass 
the day, though as the afternoon waned his im¬ 
patience increased visibly. When supper-time 
came and Sheridan had not yet appeared, Willie 
was almost in despair. He felt certain the Secret 
Service man had decided not to take him on the 
adventure. 

All things come to him who waits, however, 
and time brought Sheridan to Willie. After the. 
distressed lad had almost given up hope of see¬ 
ing him, the Secret Service man appeared. 
Willie was too much agitated to remain quietly 
aboard the boat, and was pacing up and down 
the pier, when he heard a voice speaking to the 
watchman at the pier entrance. He recognized 


68 


CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 69 


the voice instantly and raced down the pier to 
greet the Secret Service man. 

“ Well,” smiled Sheridan, “ do you still want 
to go with me? Haven’t got cold feet, have 
you? ” 

“Want to go with you?” repeated Willie. 
“ Why, I was almost sick for fear you had passed 
me up.” 

Sheridan laughed. “ I should have told you 
just when to expect me,” he said. “ But the fact 
is that a fellow in this business never knows 
where he will be from hour to hour. However, 
I might have told you that this auction was set 
for nine o’clock.” 

“ Auction! ” cried Willie. “ Aren’t we going 
after the wool smugglers? I don’t want to go 
to any auction.” 

“ You will want to go to this one, all right. 
It’s going to be an auction of bled wool.” 

“An auction of bled wool! What do vou 
mean? Has it anything to do with those smug¬ 
gling bargemen? ” 

“ Everything. That’s the way they get rid of 
their wool. You see they steal it while they are 
carrying it on their barges. The wool comes into 
this port in great bales, weighing hundreds of 
pounds. A barge is loaded with, say, five hun¬ 
dred bales of it. The barge captain 4 bleeds ’ 


70 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


the bales. Perhaps he takes only a pound from 
each bale. When he reaches his destination, he 
has to deliver the five hundred bales. He does it, 
of course, but each bale is just a little short in 
weight. Perhaps the bargeman has taken enough 
in all to make a bale for himself.” 

“ I see,” said Willie. “ And then he sells this 
stolen wool at auction.” 

“ Exactly.” 

“ But who will buy it? People must know it 
is stolen.” 

“ Sure they know it. They buy it because they 
are dishonest, like the bargeman himself.” 

“ But sooner or later some of them will be 

\ 

caught. Why do they run the risk when they 
can buy wool that isn’t stolen? ” 

“ They can get this cheaper. When wool 
comes into this country, the importer has to pay a 
heavy duty or tax on every pound. On the 
coarse wool that is used in making carpets he 
pays no duty at all; but on finer grades he has 
to pay a heavy tax. The importer either pays 
the duty outright, or has the wool put in a bonded 
warehouse, where it is under control of the gov¬ 
ernment, and pays the duty as he takes it out. 
The wool carried by these barges is largely on 
its way to bonded warehouses. No duty has been 
paid on it. So every time a bale is bled, the gov- 


CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 71 


ernment is cheated out of its revenue and the 
owner loses his wool. The crooked wool mer¬ 
chants buy the stuff because they can get it 
cheaper this way than they could if they bought 
it from an honest dealer.” 

“ Shall we be going? ” asked Willie, who was 
too impatient to delay any longer. 

Sheridan chuckled. “ It’s easy to see you 
don’t have cold feet,” he commented. “ But we 
can’t go with you dressed up like that. Get on 
those duds you got yesterday from the newsy.” 

“ Gee! ” protested Willie. “ Do I have to dust 
up my pants again? ” 

The Secret Service man laughed. “ Get some 
overalls on board your ship,” he advised. 

Willie took a good look at his companion. In 
the dusk of the pier shed, he had not noticed par¬ 
ticularly how the detective was dressed. Now 
he saw that he looked even more like a tramp 
than he had the previous day. Willie raced back 
to the ship and laid the matter before Roy, who 
speedily borrowed some overalls from a deck¬ 
hand. Even Willie had to laugh at himself when 
he got them on and looked in a mirror. After he 
had turned up the legs several times, and taken a 
reef in each shoulder strap, the things would stay 
on him, but they fitted like a meal sack. He 
pulled on his ragged coat and cap, and taking a 


72 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


last look at himself in the glass, called out, “ Now 
for the wool auction. Good-bye, Roy.” 

By the time the two wool hunters had left the 
pier, it was dark. Rapidly they made their way 
down West Street, for a distance, and then they 
cut straight across the city. At some other time 
Willie would have been glad to pause and look 
at the tower of the Wool worth Building, now 
glowing like some fairy structure in the light of 
myriads of concealed electric lamps, or to gaze at 
the lofty spire of the Singer Building, or to study 
the great hulks of other huge sky-scrapers. But 
now he had a mind for one thing only: he was 
absorbed in thoughts of the wool auction. 

Presently they approached the East River 
water-front. The Secret Service man slowed 
down his pace until he was sauntering along like 
a snail. So impatient was Willie that he could 
hardly keep with him. He wanted to push ahead 
and get there. 

“ Just hold your horses,” said Sheridan. 
“ This is a time when you want to make haste 
slowly. Use your ears and eyes, keep your 
mouth shut, and take it easy. Then you won’t 
blunder into something you can’t get out of.” 

They were now on South Street, and ap¬ 
proaching the pier where Willie had first seen his 
companion. He knew perfectly well where he 



CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 73 

was. Few people were on the streets, though 
along the wharves little knots of men had gath¬ 
ered here and there. Mostly they were smoking 
and sprawled at ease on string-pieces or in door¬ 
ways. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to 
Willie and his companion. 

“ They are going to hold this auction on the 
pier where I met you,” said Sheridan in a low 
voice. “ We are near it now, and you can see a 
number of men gathered there. I suppose old 
Larsen—he’s the fellow with the wool to sell—• 
will hold his little show out near the end of the 
pier. There’s less likelihood of discovery there. 
Also, it’s easier to throw overboard anybody who 
interferes.” 

“ What do you want me to do? ” asked Willie. 

“ We’ll have to keep out of sight until the gang 
begins to collect on the end of the pier. It will 
be pretty dark by that time, and we can probably 
join the group without attracting attention. But 
it won’t do for us to go together.” 

It had never occurred to Willie that he might 
have to act alone, and he did not relish the idea 
of being left wholly to his own resources, on that 
dark pier, among these rough men. But he said 
quietly, “ I’ll do just what you tell me to.” 

“ I don’t know exactly what to tell you,” re¬ 
plied the Secret Service man. “ Boys aren’t 



74 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


supposed to be in on this game. If they notice 
you they may throw you out. You’ll just have to 
act like a street urchin and take what comes. 
But if they do order you off the pier, you’d bet¬ 
ter go quick. Otherwise you might get hurt. I 
can’t interfere for you. To do that might spoil 
my whole game.” 

“ I’ll do my best,” said Willie, looking very 
sober. 

“ If they do run you out, just hang around 
and try to see all you can. I might need you 
before we are done with this. There’s no telling. 
This isn’t a Sunday-school class we are going to, 
remember.” 

“ You can depend upon me,” said Willie. 

“ All right then. You go on down the street. 
I’ll hang around here for a while. Remember, 
we don’t know each other, and we have never seen 
each other before.” 

“ All right. Good-bye.” And Willie went on 
down the street, while Sheridan turned into a 
cigar store to buy some tobacco. 

After Willie had walked several blocks he 
turned about and started back. He thought it 
must be nearly time for the auction to begin, and 
when he looked up the street toward the public 
pier, he was sure of it. No longer could he see 
men grouped on the street there. Again he felt 


CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 75 

the desire to run, that had mastered him on the 
preceding day. But this time he mastered it, and 
sauntered slowly along. When he came near the 
pier, he could see that the shoreward end of it 
was deserted, while a mass of black figures was 
dimly discernible at the far end. Fortunately 
there was no electric light immediately in front 
of this pier, and Willie slipped across the street, 
thankful for the protecting darkness. Once on 
the pier, he made his way quietly toward the cir¬ 
cle of men. Unnoticed, he joined the group. 

After a few moments, his eyes became accus¬ 
tomed to the unlighted pier and he realized that 
it was not nearly so dark as he had thought it 
was. He could make out the faces of those 
around him more or less distinctly. He knew 
that his own could be as readily distinguished. 
He pulled down his cap as far as he could and 
was in high hopes of going unnoticed. 

His hopes were in vain, however. For sud¬ 
denly a rough voice spoke out. “ Well, we might 
as well get down to business. But first let’s be 
sure that everybody’s all right in this crowd.” 

The speaker was Larsen, the possessor of the 
stolen wool. He began to move about among the 
gang, addressing now one, now another, by name. 
Presently he boomed out, “ Who the deuce are 
you? I never seen you before.” 


76 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Sheridan’s voice replied, and Willie held his 
breath while he heard the Secret Service man re¬ 
ply in an unconcerned tone of voice: “ Who? 
Me? Why, I’m Mike Carola, a junkie from 
Greenpoint.” 

Apparently Larsen was satisfied. He con¬ 
tinued his inspection of the crowd. Willie tried 
to avoid observation, but Larsen’s eagle eye 
spotted him. 

“ What the deuce you doin’ here? ” he cried 
with an oath. “ Kids ain’t allowed here. Get off 
this pier, and be quick about it, too.” 

Willie lost no time about going. But he 
stopped running the instant he was off the pier. 
His heart was beating wildly, but he took a grip 
on himself and presently returned to the street 
end of the pier. Not so very far from the group 
of men were stacked the boxes among which 
Sheridan had been concealed the day before. 
Willie slowly edged his way toward these boxes, 
and finally gained their protection unobserved. 
Snuggled down among them he was safe from 
discovery. He could hear most of what was said, 
for the gang soon forgot their caution in the 
heat of competitive bidding. The auction had 
started. 

“ Twenty-five cents,” was the first word Willie 
heard. 


CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 77 


“ Twenty-six/’ another voice said. 

“ Raise you a cent,” came another voice. 

“ Twenty-eight,” said the first voice, after a 
short pause. 

The bidding continued fairly brisk until forty 
cents was reached. Then no more offers were 
forthcoming. 

Larsen swore roundly. “ What do you take 
me for? A sucker? ” he said. “ I can read the pa¬ 
pers as well as anybody, and wool was selling for 
fifty-five cents on the market to-day. You don’t 
get my wool for no forty cents.” 

“ And we ain’t buvin’ no bled wool at market 
prices, neither,” retorted a truculent voice. 
“ The risk we have to take is worth the difference 
in price. Forty cents is the limit. You can take 
that or keep your wool.” 

Larsen swore loudly. “ You needn’t think 
you can put up no job on me,” he said. “ You 
know well enough the wool’s worth more than 
that. If you fellows don’t want it, there’s others 
that do. And I can get my price, too.” 

“If them Secret Service guys don’t get it 
first,” said a voice with a hint of threat in the 
tone. “ Somebody’s liable to peach on you any 
minute.” 

“ And if I found who done it,” said Larsen 
with another oath, “ I’d put him in the East 


78 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


River quick. That ain’t a safe game to play on 
Andy Larsen.” 

The voices had grown loud and threatening. 
“ Shut up! ” growled somebody. “ Do you want 
to draw all the cops on South Street? ” For a 
moment there was silence. 

“ Who takes my wool? ” demanded Larsen. 
“ Who’ll raise the ante? ” 

For a space there was no answer. Then Willie 
heard the voice of Sheridan. “ Give you forty- 
two.” 

Evidently there had been an agreement among 
the prospective buyers, as Larsen had suggested, 
for now an indignant murmur went up. “ Who 
is the guy? ” Willie heard some one say. 

“ That junkie from Greenpoint,” came the an¬ 
swer, accompanied by an oath. 

“ The wool is yours,” said Larsen. “ The rest 
of you can go kick yourselves.” And he gave a 
hoarse laugh. The combination against him was 
beaten. 

At once there was an outburst of angry voices. 
In the babel of sound Willie could hardly dis¬ 
tinguish one word from another, but he under¬ 
stood that the crowd had turned on Sheridan. 
Willie’s heart almost stood still with fear for his 
friend. Then above all the noise rang out the 
voice of Larsen, bellowing a warning about “ the 





CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 79 

cops.” Instantly the clamor subsided, only to 
start again as the crowd began to move toward 
the shore. Soon everybody was gone excepting 
a few barge captains whose boats lay in the dock 
beside the pier. They seemed to be cronies of 
Larsen's. 

Now Willie could hear plainly. Larsen was 
cursing the combination of junkies that had tried 
to put up a game on him. Presently he stopped 
swearing at them and turned to Sheridan, 
roughly inviting him to come into the cabin of 
his boat to see the wool and pay for it. The burly 
wool thief led the way, and Sheridan followed 
him without hesitation. Willie breathed easy un¬ 
til the other boatmen followed the barge captain 
and the Secret Service man over the side of the 
pier. A moment later loud voices arose within 
the hull of the barge. The sound of blows fol¬ 
lowed. Then all was still. Frightened, almost 
terrified, Willie scrambled from his hiding-place 
and raced for shore. He was certain Sheridan 
had been murdered. 

Willie’s first impulse was to cry aloud for 
help. A second thought sealed his lips. The 
crowd his cries would draw might finish him as 
well as Sheridan: for the members of it would 
be friendly to Larsen. It was better to find a 
policeman. Sheridan might not be dead yet, and 


80 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


it might still be possible to save his life. But no 
policeman was in sight. Willie reached the end 
of the pier and glanced desperately up the street, 
then down. No bluecoat was to be seen. Which 
way should he go for help? Involuntarily 
Willie faced south and turned to his left. Then 
he ran south. He guessed wrong, for the police¬ 
man he sought was at that moment at the north¬ 
ern extremity of his beat. But Willie did not 
find it out until he had run far down South 
Street. Then he turned and raced back. 

As he approached the public pier again, he 
looked down its black length, hoping against 
hope for some glimpse of his friend. Then he 
stopped dead in his tracks, struck dumb with 
amazement. There were Larsen and Sheridan, 
walking peaceably side by side, and just emerg¬ 
ing from the darkness of the unlighted pier. 
They crossed the street and turned north. Willie 
followed close behind them. At the first street 
light Sheridan stopped, said something to his 
companion, and drew back his coat. Willie 
caught the gleam of a gold badge on his vest. 
He heard Larsen bellow profanely, but before 
the hulking bargeman could lift a finger, some¬ 
thing shone in the light, there was a sharp click, 
and a handcuff glittered on his wrist. 

Then Willie heard Sheridan say: “ Be quiet, 


CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS 81 


Larsen, and come on. I’ve got you right. If you 
try any monkey business, I’ll put a hole in you 
quick.” And in another second a wicked-looking 
automatic gleamed dully in Sheridan’s free hand. 



CHAPTER V 


ON THE TRAIL OF A COTTON THIEF 

H OW did you do it? ” demanded Willie, the 
minute Sheridan stepped from the door of 
the Old Slip police-station, whither he had taken 
Larsen and where Willie had followed him. “ I 
was scared to death about you. I was sure they 
had murdered you when you went down in the 
hold of that barge to pay for the wool. So I ran 
to get a cop, but I couldn’t find one.” 

Sheridan chuckled. “ I reckon they would 
pretty nearly have murdered me if they had 
found out who I was. They had a pretty good 
chance, down in that barge.” 

“ But how did you ever get Larsen out without 
a struggle? I heard him ask you to come inside 
and settle for the wool.” 

“ That was easy enough,” explained the Secret 
Service man. “ I asked him to go have a drink 
and said I’d pay him in the saloon.” 

“ Oh! Of course,” said Willie, chagrined at 

his own dullness. “ But what was all that noise 

82 


ON TRAIL OF A COTTON THIEF 83 

I heard in the barge? It was like the sound 
of blows.” 

“ So it was. But they were blows of a hatchet 
that Larsen was using to break open some hogs¬ 
heads. He even took the trouble to wrap a rag 
around his hatchet, so as to deaden the noise.” 

“ That must be what fooled me. The noise 
didn’t sound like hatchet blows. But what were 
the hogsheads he was knocking to pieces, and why 
did he do it? ” 

“ You don’t suppose he was going to carry that 
stolen wool in plain sight on his boat, do you? 
He had to hide it somewhere, and he was pretty 
slick about it, too. He had some hogsheads in 
the rear end of his boat, with false tops in them. 
There was about a foot of coal and then came the 
false tops. Tinder that was the wool. Nobody 
would ever have guessed that there was anything 
but coal in the hogsheads.” 

“ Slick, wasn’t he? ” said Willie. 

“ These longshoremen are no fools. You have 
to get up pretty early to be ahead of them.” 

“ How did you ever get track of this smug¬ 
gling, anyway? ” 

“ That was easy enough. The wool bales were 
inventoried at so many pounds each, when they 
left Australia. But when they reached the 
bonded warehouse, they weighed less. There had 


84 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


been a leak somewhere. All we had to do was to 
find it. We simply had to keep hunting until we 
found where that leak was. That was an easy 
matter, for the wool had been transported in cer¬ 
tain boats and handled bv certain crews. It was 

%> 

just a question of time until we’d run down the 
thief.” 

“ But what I’d like to know,” said Willie, “ is 
how you knew these fellows were going to gather 
on that pier and arrange for this wool auction. 
I’ve been wondering about it ever since I met you 
yesterday.” 

The Secret Service agent laughed. “ That 
was a piece of luck,” he said. “ I’ve been on this 
wool business for several days and the scent was 
getting pretty close to Larsen. I tried to get 
aboard his boat by applying for a job as a deck¬ 
hand.” 

“ You did? ” 

“ Sure. But there was nothing doing. He’s a 
fly guy, all right, and I didn’t dare fool around 
his boat. So I changed my clothes and hung 
around the neighborhood until I saw a chance to 
get out on the pier unnoticed. Then I wandered 
out and hid among the boxes. I was expecting 
to stay there most of the night, hoping I might 
overhear something that would give me a line on 
the thief.” 


ON TRAIL OF A COTTON THIEF 85 

“ Why did you hide in the box pile? ” 

“ Because these boatmen gather on that pier 
every evening. And they know pretty well 
what’s going on. But I played in luck. It hap¬ 
pened that the tip had gone out for a. wool sale 
last evening, though I didn’t know it. But Lar¬ 
sen saw a chance to get a little more wool to-day, 
so he put the auction off until to-night. I over¬ 
heard the whole scheme.” 

“ Gee! You sure were in luck. Did you learn 
anything more when you followed those fellows 
to the coffee-house? ” 

“ Not a thing.” 

They walked on in silence for a time. “ What 
will you do next, now that you have solved the 
problem of the wool theft? ” 

“ Oh! We aren’t done with that business yet. 
We’ve got to get the avooI from Larsen’s boat, 
and then find the rest of what was stolen. Lar¬ 
sen’s wool is only a part of the stuff.” 

“ When will you go after the wool? ” 

“ We’ll get that to-night. If we left it until 
morning, there wouldn’t be any wool there. 
We’ll have to act quick before they get wise to 
Larsen’s arrest. I got him out of there so quietly 
that I don’t think any of his pals know about his 
arrest yet. But he’ll get word to them quick 
enough. I told the warden to hold up any mes- 


86 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


sages for two or three hours. That will give us 
time to grab the wool. Then Larsen can send 
out all the alarms he wants to.” 

“ May I go with you when you get the wool? ” 

“ Oh! I’m not going myself,” said Sheridan. 
“ I’ve already telephoned the office to hustle a 
truck down there, and McCarthy will go along 
with it. If I went down on that pier when the 
barge is raided, every bargeman on the water¬ 
front would have me spotted. I’m supposed to 
keep on with this job until we get all the wool, 
and I don’t want those pirates to get wise to 
me.” 

“ Won’t I have any more chances to help 
you? ” asked Willie, and his voice was so sorrow¬ 
ful that Sheridan laughed outright. 

“ The only way you can help me now,” he said, 
“is to join me in a bite to eat. I didn’t have 
time to get supper, and I’m hungry as a spring 
bear.” 

“ Haven’t you had anything to eat since noon? 
You must be nearly starved.” 

“ I had a sandwich and a cup of coffee just be¬ 
fore I came for you, but that doesn’t stay by a 
fellow very long. Come on. We’ll go back to 
South Street and get a bite. It’s only a step and 
there are some sailors’ hangouts you might like 
to see. We’ll just keep our eyes and ears open 


ON TRAIL OP A COTTON THIEF 87 

and we might pick up something interesting. In 
this business you never can tell when you’ll stum¬ 
ble on something.” 

Back to South Street they went, and along 
that forbidding thoroughfare. Gone were the 
bustle and activity of the daytime, that lent so 
much charm to the scene. Only the dirt and 
squalor remained. No longer could one see in¬ 
land the towering shafts of granite and marble, 
that thrust their heads into the very clouds. In¬ 
visible now was the swelling river, with its stir¬ 
ring life and stately vessels. Only the grimy 
fronts of ancient, battered houses, the foul gut¬ 
ters, and the rough pier sheds were visible. But 
dimly could one discern the vessels in the docks. 
And the water-front, that sunlight made so fasci¬ 
nating, with its extended panorama of ships and 
shipping, now appeared dull, dark, and forbid¬ 
ding. 

Down the dingy street they went, their foot¬ 
steps echoing in the deserted thoroughfare; 
though here and there little knots of longshore¬ 
men were congregated about the piers. Occa¬ 
sional saloons, but poorly disguised as coffee¬ 
houses, sent shafts of yellow light and the noise 
of revelry out into the night. And into one of 
these Sheridan presently led his young com¬ 
panion. 


88 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


It was a rather roomy place, with a low, dingy 
ceiling, and a bar at one side; but the bar now 
held stacks of oysters piled on cakes of ice. 
Swinging doors led to the kitchen. Little round 
tables filled the floor space. About these sat, 
lounging, a considerable number of longshore¬ 
men and other rough-visaged frequenters of the 

water-front. Practically all of them were smok- 

•/ 

ing pipes, and the air was so dense with tobacco 
smoke that Willie almost choked. The room was 
hazy with it, and every new current of air drew 
the smoke out in thin horizontal clouds. The 
odor of the place was indescribable. With the 
smell of the tobacco was mingled the sickening 
odor of grease, from the kitchen, and the smell 
of the steaming dishes on various tables; for some 
of the men in the place were eating. But most 
of those present sat smoking and sipping 
“ coffee ” from the cups before them. But the 
coffee was cold and strangely suggestive, in its 
odor, of old rye. 

The Secret Service man led the way to a little 
table in a corner, where they would be partly 
hidden from observation. As they crossed the 
floor, Willie felt as though a hundred eyes were 
fairly boring through him. Instantly he became 
self-conscious and embarrassed. But he kept his 
eyes on the back of his companion, and noticing 


ON TRAIL OP A COTTON THIEF 


89 


the appearance of utter unconcern with which 
Sheridan walked along, Willie tried to imitate 
him, and to appear as though unconscious that 
there was anybody in the room except himself 
and his companion. More and more he admired 
the big Secret Service man. Nothing seemed to 
fluster him or excite him. Apparently Sheridan 
had walked through the room without glancing 
to right or left; and yet Willie felt very certain 
his companion could pass an examination on the 
men in that room and describe every one of them 
perfectly. He hoped the time would come when 
he would be able to do the same thing. Willie 
was a great deal nearer being able to do that than 
he understood. 

Sheridan’s first question after they were 
seated at their table showed that. “ Did you 
notice that fellow by the door, as we came in? ” 
he asked very quietly. 

“ Which one-—the man with the blue cap or 
the one with the red necktie? There was a man 
on each side of the door.” 

Willie could not see either man as he spoke. 
He had remembered how they were dressed. 
Sheridan was quick to appreciate this fact. 

“ You’ve got an eye like a hawk’s,” he com¬ 
mented. “ I meant the fellow with the red neck¬ 
tie. Get a good look at him when you go out. 



90 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


He’s one of the toughest nuts on the water-front. 
And he’s about the only man that wears a neck¬ 
tie, too. That’s a bug of his—red neckties. 
Whenever there’s any crooked work along the 
water-front, you can be sure he’s got a hand in 
it.” 

“ What’s his name? ” asked Willie. 

“ They call him ‘ Red ’ Anderson. I don’t 
know what his real name is.” 

Sheridan ordered some hot oyster soup and 
when the waiter brought a steaming tureen and 
lifted the cover, the smell that rose was so savory 
that Willie was glad enough to “ help ” Sheridan 
with his supper. When they had finished the 
soup, and some other good things besides, Sheri¬ 
dan lighted a cigar and lounged back in his chair. 

A waiter promptly came. “ Did you want 
some coffee? ” he asked with one eye closed. 

Willie did not comprehend what the waiter 
really meant, even though he noticed the wink. 
But when Sheridan nodded, and the waiter 
brought a coffee-cup containing whiskey, Willie 
understood quickly enough. 

“ Where did it come from? ” said Sheridan in¬ 
differently. “ Is it all right? ” 

“ From Bermuda, I guess, and it’s the real 
stuff.” And the waiter withdrew. 

“ We’re going to have a good deal of trouble 


ON TRAIL OF A COTTON THIEF 


91 


before we are done with that stuff,” said Sheri¬ 
dan. “ The fellows that are bringing it into the 
country are a dangerous gang. They stick at 
nothing.” 

He did not drink the stuff, however, but sur¬ 
reptitiously emptied his cup in a spittoon. “ A 
fellow would be taking a long chance to drink 
any of this South Street booze,” he said. “ More 
than likely it’s wood alcohol.” 

“ What did you buy it for if you didn’t intend 
to drink it? ” asked Willie, in astonishment. 

“ When you’re in Rome,” said Sheridan, “ you 
must do as the Romans do. These fellows have 
come here for booze and nothing else. A fellow 
that came in here and didn’t order a drink would 
attract attention right away. You and I are not 
looking for attention. Now we’ll get out, and 
we’ll try to slip out without attracting any more 
attention than we can help. These longshore¬ 
men are mighty suspicious.” 

He paid his reckoning and the two started for 
the door. Willie was all eyes. He tried to see 
everything and yet not seem to be looking. 
Right away his eye was attracted by that flaming 
red necktie of Anderson’s, and he noticed that its 
owner had moved away from the door and joined 
a knot of men, who had their heads close together 
over a table. One of them had evidently been 


92 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

drinking too freely, for his voice was plainly 
raised above the general hum of conversation. 

“ I’ve got a fine jag of cotton to sell,” Willie 
heard him say. 

“ Shut up. Not so loud. Keep quiet,” came 
the protesting voices of his fellows. 

Sheridan was already out of the door and did 
not hear the remark. Willie caught it plainly, 
but did not understand its significance. He shut 
the door and followed Sheridan down the steps. 

“ What did that fellow mean about having a 
jag of cotton to sell? ” he asked Sheridan. 

“ Who said he had cotton to sell? ” asked 
Sheridan instantly. 

“ Why, a fellow at that table with Red Ander¬ 
son.” 

“ I didn’t hear anybody say anything about 
cotton,” 

“ You were already out of the door. But I 
heard him distinctly. The others told him to 
keep quiet.” 

“ They had more reason to than they knew,” 
said Sheridan. “ I suppose the guy has been 
stealing cotton and is ready for a little cotton 
auction.” 

“What will you do about it?” demanded 
Willie, afire in a moment at the suggestion of 
another adventure. 


ON TRAIL OF A COTTON THIEF 93 

“ Don’t know whether I’ll do anything. All 
we are interested in is smugglers. The cotton 
comes from the South, you know, so there is no 
question of smuggling. It’s simply a case of 
larceny.” 

“ Then I suppose you’ll report the case to the 
police and let them arrest the man.” 

Unwittingly Willie had touched a sore spot. 
He had yet to learn about the power of profes¬ 
sional jealousy. But he had his first lesson at 
once. 

“ Not on your life,” said Sheridan. “ We’ll 
grab him ourselves. The cops would bungle the 
whole business and give out a fine fairy story of 
how they discovered the theft. We’ll just keep 
an eye on that bird and see who he is.” 

“What are you going to do? Go back into 
the restaurant? ” 

“ No, we’ll just trail him after he comes out. 
This time you’ll have to help me, for I don’t 
know which one of the gang it was who said he 
had the cotton.” 

“ You bet I’ll help you,” said Willie, de¬ 
lighted to be of real assistance at last. 

As luck would have it, there was an electric 
light almost in front of the coffee-house door. 
Diagonally across the street was a pile of tim¬ 
bers, close to the string-piece of a dock. The 


94 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


timbers were in a shadow, and at the end of the 
pile was a hollow space, formed by some pro¬ 
jecting beams, that was inky black. Glancing 
hastily up and down the street to make sure they 
were not observed, Sheridan slipped across the 
street, followed by Willie, and in a second they 
were securely hidden in the recesses of the lumber 
pile. 

Fortunately they did not have long to wait. 
Soon the door of the coffee-house opened and a 
group of men came out. One of them was sing¬ 
ing noisily. 

“ That’s the fellow,” said Willie. 

“ I don’t know who he is. But we’ll soon find 
out.” 

The men from the coffee-house parted on 
the sidewalk, and the roistering one started 
off alone, the others going in the opposite direc¬ 
tion. 

“ That’s luck,” muttered Sheridan. 

When the man was half a block down the 
street, the watchers slipped from their retreat 
and trailed the man until he crossed the road and 
disappeared in the darkness. The trailers hur¬ 
ried along and were just in time to see him crawl¬ 
ing unsteadily over the side of the pier to the 
deck of a barge. Returning a little later, they 
found everything dark and deserted about the 


ON TRAIL OF A COTTON THIEF 95 

pier. So they ventured out on it and made a swift 
examination of the barge. 

“ She’s the Dixie” muttered Sheridan, study¬ 
ing the name on the stern of the boat. “ And she 
belongs to the Coastwise Steamship Company. 
They operate between here and the South. 
We’ll have a look at her to-morrow.” 

“ May I go along? ” demanded Willie. 

“ Surest thing you know. Why, you’re a ma¬ 
terial witness in this case. You meet me at 
Bowling Green at eight o’clock to-morrow morn¬ 
ing, and we’ll have a look at the Dixie” 


CHAPTER VI 


WHAT WAS BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 

ONG before eight o’clock, Willie Brown, no 



' longer arrayed in overalls but dressed in his 
best, was at the place of rendezvous, at Bowling 
Green. Sheridan was not yet there. Willie 
knew something of the history of this tiny oval 
of grass, at the foot of Broadway, the longest 
street in the world. And now, while he was wait¬ 
ing for the Secret Service man he looked up that 
thoroughfare, which in ways other than mere 
length has no counterpart in the earth. He 
could not help thinking of the difference that 
three short centuries had made in its appearance. 

Now he was looking up a thoroughfare so nar¬ 
row that six wagons abreast filled it from curb 
to curb. Of course there were tinv side streets, 
near at hand, like Petticoat Lane, in which two 
teams could not pass each other. Indeed, one 
team practically occupied all that roadway. And 
there were scores of streets all about him, 
crooked, twisting little highways that originally 
were probably paths worn through the brush by 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 


97 


the cattle of the early Dutch settlers. But Willie 
was facing up Broadway, the main artery of 
traffic for the great metropolis. And though this 
street would have been plenty wide enough for a 
country town, it was hopelessly inadequate for 
the great city. 

For on either hand, as far as he could see, rose 
the hugest buildings in existence. Ten, twenty, 
thirty, forty, and even fifty stories, the various 
buildings towered aloft. More than one of the 
colossal sky-scrapers housed ten thousand work¬ 
ers—a number of people several times greater 
than the entire population of the town in which 
Willie lived. And yet Broadway here was no 
wider than Main Street in Central City. No 
wonder Broadway was so crowded, when build¬ 
ing after building poured out its thousands upon 
thousands of workers into this one thoroughfare. 

But all these majestic buildings, all these 
wondrous changes that had altered lower Man¬ 
hattan from a forested rocky island to a magic 
city of cloud-touching structures, were not as re¬ 
markable as this tiny oval of grass in which 
Willie stood. The remarkable thing about this 
grass plot is that it is a grass plot. For three 
hundred years one change has followed hard 
upon the heels of another about Bowling Green. 
Yet Bowling Green is still Bowling Green, even 



98 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


as it was in the days of old Peter Stuyvesant. A 
little smaller it is no doubt. But it is still open 
and still softly carpeted with turf, even as it was 
when those early Dutch settlers played at bowls 
on its well cropped sward. 

In imagination Willie could see them now, in 
their voluminous knee-length breeches, rolling 
their wooden balls over the grass. And the Cus¬ 
tom-house that rose majestically across the street 
on the site of the old Dutch fort became in 
Willie’s eyes the old fort itself; with its great 
earthen walls so neglected by the placid Dutch 
that their roving swine rooted holes entirely 
through them. 

As he gazed at the marble statue of an early, 
Dutch city father, within the little oval, he re¬ 
membered that he had read that long before it 
had been erected, there stood in this same Bowl¬ 
ing Green Park a leaden statue of George III, of 
England. And Willie recalled, too, that a crowd 
of patriots, during the Revolution, had fastened 
ropes to this statue, at a time when Washington 
was in sore need of ammunition, and had pulled 
it down and melted it, and cast the molten lead 
into bullets to teach that same George III a 
needed lesson. And that thought recalled to 
mind another occurrence of Revolutionary days 
that took place in this exact spot where he stood. 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 99 

The iron-picketed fence that surrounds Bowling’ 
Green was built in 1771, and each of the cast- 
iron posts bore on its summit a royal coat of arms 
or some other royal insignia, that the patriots did 
not like. And so, with hammers and axes, they 
knocked off these offending finials. Plainly did 
the rough-topped supports show where these of¬ 
fensive emblems had been broken away; and 
Willie had just started to examine the telltale 
marks, when a voice said, “ Hello, youngster. I 
see you are getting well posted.” 

“ You’re mistaken,” laughed Willie. “ I am 
doing picket duty.” 

“ Well, come along and we’ll do something 
that you will find more interesting. We’ll have 
to hustle, too. So be brisk.” 

The voice was familiar enough, but Willie 
hardly recognized the well-dressed and really 
handsome man who was speaking to him. He 
had never before seen Sheridan in anything but 
old clothes. After an astonished look at him 
Willie leaped to join the Secret Service man. 
But the latter, instead of starting for the water¬ 
front, turned up Broadway. A very short walk 
brought them to a towering office-building into 
which the detective turned. Willie wondered, 
but kept his peace. He was learning to use his 
mouth less and his eyes and ears more. 


100 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


They stepped into an express elevator and 
were shot upward to the twenty-fifth floor. 
They walked down a long corridor and came to 
a door which bore the name “ Coastwise Steam¬ 
ship Company.” Willie was glad that he had 
asked no questions. They entered the office, but 
were held up by a pompous office boy, who de¬ 
manded to know their business. Willie’s com¬ 
panion took a card from his pocket and began 
to write on it. Willie saw that the card was en¬ 
graved with the name of “ Franklin P. Sheridan, 
United States Secret Service.” And on the face 
of the card Sheridan wrote this message: 
“ Would like to see Mr. Morgan at once on a 
matter of importance.” 

When the office boy looked at the card, his 
eyes nearly popped out of his head. Willie 
heard him mutter to himself, “ Gee! He’s a 
Secret Service man! ” The way the lad lost his 
dignity and bolted into Mr. Morgan’s office made 
both Willie and his companion laugh. A mo¬ 
ment later the office boy came hustling out. 

“ Mr. Morgan.wants to know if you will please 
step right in,” said the lad who led the way and 
threw open the door for them. Then reluctantly, 
and with many a backward glance, he withdrew. 

Mr. Morgan rose to greet his visitors. “ Mr. 
Sheridan? ” he asked. 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 101 


*“ Yes, Mr. Morgan,” said the Seeret Service 
man, taking the steamship manager’s extended 
hand. “ And this is my assistant, Mr. Willie 
Brown.” 

“ Indeed! ” said Mr. Morgan, with a world of 
astonishment in his tone. “ What can I do for 
you, Mr. Sheridan? ” 

“ I have reason to think,” said the Secret Serv¬ 
ice man, “ that the captain of one of your light¬ 
ers has some stolen cotton in his possession. 
Have you carried any lately? ” 

“ Yes,” replied Mr. Morgan. “ The lighter 
Dixie has carried several loads this week from 

one of our steamers to a New Haven Railway 

• >> 

pier. 

“ That’s the very barge we had in mind,” said 
Sheridan. 

“ Have you examined her? ” asked the steam- 
ship manager with interest. 

“ No; we haven’t been aboard of her at all. 
We didn’t want to do anything to excite the sus¬ 
picion of her captain. But we haven’t the least 
doubt he has some stolen cotton in his possession, 
and if he has, it is almost certainly in his lighter.” 

“ What makes you think so, if you haven’t 
been on board the boat? How did you get track 
of the matter? ” 

“We owe it to my assistant here. We have 


102 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


been on the track of wool thieves for some time. 
They steal the wool while it is being conveyed 
to the bonded warehouses, vou know. And so 
the owner loses his property and Uncle Sam 
loses the revenue on the stolen wool. We were 
nosing around in South Street last night, when 
my assistant overheard a fellow say he had a jag 
of cotton to sell. We kept tabs on the fellow 
and he proved to belong on the Dixie/' 

“ Aren’t those rather slender grounds on which 
to accuse a man of theft? ” said Mr. Morgan, a 
frown wrinkling his forehead. “ I have no doubt 
this fellow may have been stealing. We are los¬ 
ing property in transit all the time. But we have 
enough trouble with our boatmen as it is. I don’t 
want to accuse one of them of dishonestv unless 
we can make good on the accusation.” 

of any¬ 
thing. Let’s go examine the boat and see what’s 
in it. 

“ But that would arouse suspicion.” 

“ Not a bit. I’m a prospective purchaser for 
the craft. You are the seller. Of course I want 
to see what I’m going to buy, before I buy it.” 

“ Of course,” said the steamship manager. 
“ That’s as simple as can be. What is the best 
way to get at it? ” 

“ Better get the craft out in the river. Then 


“ We don’t have to accuse anybody 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 103 


weTl have everything at our mercy, including the 
captain.” 

“To be sure. WeTl do it.” Mr. Morgan 
turned to his telephone and gave a brusque order. 
Then he rose, put on his hat, and turned to his 
stenographer. “ I’ll be back in-” He ap¬ 

pealed to Sheridan. “ How long? ” he asked. 

“ An hour and a half. Maybe an hour, if we 
are not delayed,” replied the Secret Service man. 

“ I’ll be back in an hour and a half, and per¬ 
haps sooner,” said Mr. Morgan. 

His stenographer nodded comprehension, and 
the three investigators left the office. This time 
the office boy not only had his eyes open, but his 
mouth as well. “ Gee! ” he muttered, “ I won¬ 
der what’s up.” 

Straight across the island the three investiga¬ 
tors went hustling. A very few minutes brought 
them to the East River piers of the Coastwise 
Steamship Company. A tug, with steam up, 
was moored at the end of one of these piers. 
Through the great pier shed went Mr. Morgan 
and his two companions. The executive nodded 
greetings to employees as he went. Arrived at 
the end of the pier, the three leaped aboard the 
tug. 

“ Good-morning, Mr. Morgan,” said the pilot, 
“ Where do you want to go? ” 



104 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ Take us down to the pier where our lighters 
are. Make fast to the Dixie and take her out 
* into the stream. You can pull down between 
Governor’s Island and Brooklyn. This gentle¬ 
man wants to examine that boat.” 

Lines were cast off, the pilot rang a bell, and 
the tug’s propeller began to churn the water. 
Slowly the tug drew away from the pier. In a 
very short time she Avas abreast of the barge 
wharf. The pilot nosed his way in beside the 
Dixie. The latter’s captain was on her deck. 

“ Catch these lines and make fast,” called a 
hand on the tug, as he threw a hawser toward the 
Dixie. 

The Dixie’s captain caught it and made it fast. 
Then he caught and fastened a second line for¬ 
ward. 

“ We’re going to pull down the river,” said the 
tug captain, leaning out of the pilot-house. 
“ Just cast off.” 

The Dixie’s captain drew in the lines that held 
the barge to the pier. Mr. Morgan, followed by 
Sheridan and Willie, stepped from the tug to the 
lighter. 

“ Your name is-” said Mr. Morgan, hesi¬ 

tating. 

“ Jensen,” replied the captain of the Dixie. 

“Ah, yes. I had forgotten. Well, Jensen, 



BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 105 

this gentleman wants to buy a lighter. We’d 
like to sell the Dixie . But he won’t take her until 
he has looked her over well and seen how she 
behaves under tow.” 

“ She’s a good boat,” said Jensen, with the 
customary pride of a sailor in his craft. “ There 
ain’t none better afloat.” 

“ I told him so, but he wants to be shown.” 

“ We’ll show him.” 

Meantime the tug had gotten under way, and 
was drawing out of the dock, with the Dixie fast 
beside her. Once clear of the pier, her captain 
turned down-stream. 

Sheridan remained on deck for a time, ap¬ 
parently watching the movement of the boat 
through the water. Then he turned to Jensen. 
“ How’s her cabin? ” he asked. 

“ Snuggest little cabin on the East River,” re¬ 
plied Jensen, “ Step in and have a look.” 

The inspecting party descended to the cabin. 
It was, indeed, snug enough. Jensen had it in 
pretty tidy shape. There were bunks along both 
sides and Jensen’s bed was made. He had a few 
articles of clothing piled neatly in a vacant bunk. 
Sheridan walked about and eyed everything 
keenly. 

“ Don’t you have any closets? ” he asked. “ A 
boat like this ought to have closets.” 


106 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

“ Sure there’s closets,” and the sailor pointed 
to some partitions that opened toward the hold 
of the barge. Sheridan peered into them ea¬ 
gerly, but they were practically empty. 

“ What’s the size of this cabin? ” he asked. 
“ How big a family could live in it? Y r ou know 
most boatmen are married and want to have 
their families aboard with them.” 

“ It’s about twelve feet long,” said Jensen, 
“ and the width of the boat.” 

“ Now, there ought to be room for some closets 
in the stern,” said Sheridan, “ on either side of 
the companionway, between the cabin wall and 
the hull itself.” He stooped down and keenly 
examined the rear wall. 

“ There ain’t no closets there,” said Jensen, 
“ and there ain’t no room for any, neither. I 
tried one time to make a closet there. Needed 
more storage room for myself. The cabin wall is 
right up against the stern o’ the boat.” 

Sheridan glanced expressively at Mr. Morgan, 
but said nothing. Instead, he turned to the boat¬ 
man. “How long is your craft over all?” he 
asked. 

“ One hundred feet.” 

“ And you say this rear cabin wall is plumb 
against the boat’s hull? ” 

“ Snug against it.” 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 107 

“ How deep are these closets here, forward? ” 

“ About three feet. You can see for your¬ 
self.” 

The Secret Service man drew a little search¬ 
light from his vest pocket and stooping, walked 
through one of the closet doors. He produced 
a tape and measured the space. “ Exactly three 
feet,” he remarked. 

“ How much cargo can you carry? ” he asked, 
suddenly shifting the subject. 

“ A pile of it,” said Jensen. “ She’ll carry 
more stuff than any boat of her size in the har¬ 
bor.” 

“ But I must know exactly.” 

“ I can’t tell you exactly.” 

“ Maybe I can figure it myself. Let’s take a 
look at the hold.” 

The party came up from the cabin and went 
forward, dropping through an open hatchway, 
inside the boat. The hold was bare and perfectly 
clean. With his tape Sheridan rapidly measured 
the hold, beginning at the bow and working back 
toward the cabin in the stern. 

“ Twenty-four feet wide and eighty-three feet 
long,” he said. He paused a moment, figuring. 
“ Twelve feet for the cabin, three for the closets, 
and eighty-three for the cargo. That totals 
ninety-eight feet. There are two feet of space 


108 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


unaccounted for. I don’t pay for one hun¬ 
dred feet of boat if there’s only ninety-eight,” 
and again he looked significantly at Mr. Mor¬ 


gan. 


“ What about that, Jensen? ” asked the steam¬ 
ship manager. “ Are you sure this craft is one 
hundred feet long? ” 

“ Come to think of it,” said the boatman un¬ 
easily, “it is only ninety-eight feet. I got so 
used to thinkin’ it was about a hundred that I 
just called it an even hundred. That’s all it is, 
sir, ninety-eight feet.” 

“ Well, I’m going to make sure,” said Sheri¬ 
dan. “ I don’t buy any boat unless I know ex¬ 
actly what I’m getting.” 

He climbed to the deck and rapidly measured. 
“ She’s a hundred feet exactly,” he said. And he 
turned on the boatman severely. “ How do you 
account for those two missing feet? ” he de¬ 
manded. 

A crafty look came into Jensen’s eyes. “ Two 
feet is it? ” he said. “ Why, I just boarded a 
little space in the back of the hold to keep my 
cabin warm.” 

Once more Sheridan glanced at the steamship 
manager. “ You didn’t need to board up a space 
two feet wide to keep your cabin warm. Six 
inches would have been plenty. Why, that cuts 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 109 


down the cargo space tremendously. We’ll have 
to have that partition down. I want to know 
exactly how much I can carry in this boat. And 
besides, there might be some rotten planks in the 
hull in that two-foot space. I’d like to look in 
there.” 

“ Tear out your partition,” said Mr. Morgan. 
“ This man is entitled to see every part of the 
boat before he buys her.” 

“ I ain’t got nothin’ to do it with,” said Jensen. 
“ I’ll do it to-night and he can have a look at her 
to-morrow.” 

“ That won’t do. I’ve got to choose between 
this boat and another this very morning. Surely 
you’ve got a hatchet. What did you use to put 
the partition up? ” 

“ No, I ain’t got no hatchet,” replied Jensen, 
very sullenly. 

Mr. Morgan stepped to the hatchway and 
called to a hand on the tug. “ Bring me an axe,” 
he said. 

In a second the fellow dropped through the 
hatchway with an axe. Mr. Morgan directed 
him to knock down the partition. The man from 
the tug drove his axe blade between two of the 
partition boards and pried one loose. Some 
tightly stuffed burlap bags promptly bulged into 
the space he had opened. He tore off one board 


110 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


after another and the bulging sacks came tum¬ 
bling out on the floor of the lighter. They were 
filled with cotton. 

“ What does this mean? ’* demanded Mr. Mor¬ 
gan, confronting the sullen barge captain. 
“ Where did this cotton come from and how did 
it get behind this false partition? ” 

“ I don't know,” growled Jensen. “ I never 
seen it before. I didn’t know it was behind 
there.” 

“ See here, Jensen,” said Sheridan, stepping 
up to the boatman. “ The jig is up. You are 
under arrest for grand larceny,” and he threw 
back his coat, displaying on his vest the glittering 
shield of the Secret Service. 

“ I don’t know nothin' about that cotton,'’ per¬ 
sisted Jensen. 

“ There’s no use lying about it,” said Sheridan 
sharply. “ We’ve got you dead to rights and 
you’ll go to prison as sure as you stand here. 
None of that.” 

He leaped forward, grabbed the boatman’s 
right hand, and whirled the fellow around. From 
the man’s hip pocket he drew a loaded revolver. 
Deftly he “ frisked ” his prisoner, and finding no 
other weapons on him, let go of him. 

“ Now, Jensen, ’ he said, “ we’ve got you right. 
You will only hurt yourself by lying. You may 


BEHIND TEZ FALSE PARTITION 111 

help yourself if you teZ the truth. Where did 
this cotton come from? ” 

4i From bales we carried to the Xew Haven 
pier.** 

“ When? ” 

“ Just this week.* 

“ How much is there ? ” 

“ I don't know. I didn't weigh it. 5 * 

But you have a pretty good idea of what it 
will weigh. What does one of these bags 
weigh ? ” 

** About seventy-five pounds. I guess. - ' replied 
Jensen. 

Sheridan lifted a bag. " That's a close guess." 
he said. * We ll call it seventv-five, anvwav. 
Rapidly he counted the bags. ~ Thirty-five." he 
said. ’* That makes thirtv-five times seven tv- 

• m 

fiv e." He stopped and made some figures on an 
old envelope. " Twenty-six hundred and twenty- 
five pounds." he said. “ More than a ton and a 
quarter of cotton. Mr. Morgan. That's a little 
better than five bales. It's worth something 
more than wholesale at present prices. 

Have you had any complaints about loss of cot¬ 
ton?”’ 

Lots of them, hut we have seldom been able 
to put our hands on the thieves." 

“ Let me suggest that you have every one of 








112 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


your lighters examined and measured and all 
space accounted for. It might be worth your 
while.” 

Then Sheridan turned to Jensen once more. 
“ Who helped you steal this stuff? ” he de¬ 
manded. 

“ Nobody,” said Jensen gruffly. 

“ Come on, now. Cough up. Who’s in this 
with you? ” 

“Not a soul,” insisted Jensen. 

“ If you’re lying, we’ll find it out,” said Sheri¬ 
dan, “ and it will go all the harder with you.” 

“ Is there anything more you want to see, Mr. 
Sheridan? ” asked the steamship man. 

“Not a thing. We’ve seen all there is to 
see.” 

“ Then we’ll head for shore.” He gave the 
signal to the tug’s pilot, and in a few minutes, the 
party was once more ashore. Sheridan slipped 
a pair of handcuffs on his prisoner. 

“ Young man,” said Mr. Morgan, turning to 
Willie, “ I understand that we are indebted to 
you for this discovery and very important arrest. 
The continued loss of cotton has cost our line 
thousands of dollars in damages. Come along to 
the office with me. I have something for you.” 

“ If you mean money,” said Willie, “ I cannot 
take it.” 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 113 

“ Why not? Is it against the rules of the Se¬ 
cret Service? ” 

“ I don’t know,” replied Willie. “ I don’t be¬ 
long to the Secret Service.” 

“ You don’t? Then what’s all this about your 
being Mr. Sheridan’s assistant? ” 

“ You’re perfectly free to take anything the 
gentleman wants to give you,” remarked Sheri- 
dan, “ but you would not be if you did belong to 
the Service. No Secret Service man may accept 
a cent for any service from any one but the gov¬ 
ernment. And as for his being my assistant, Mr. 
Morgan, it happens this way. This lad was com¬ 
ing along the water-front when I was trailing 
wool smugglers. I needed to get a message to 
my office badly, but I didn’t dare take my eyes 
off the men I was trailing. I asked this lad to 
send a message for me. He never saw me before 
and I never saw him. But it seems that he was 
one of those four boys from Pennsylvania that 
helped to find that German secret wireless station 
during the war.” 

“ I remember reading about it. So you were 
one of those boys, eh? ” 

“ Yes, sir,” said Willie modestly. 

“ And so he knew the private call of the Secret 
Service,” went on Sheridan. “ When I gave him 
the number I wanted him to call up, he knew 


114 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


right away that I was a Secret Service man. He 
delivered my message in fine shape and then came 
back to help me, because he found the office 
couldn’t do anything for me. We got the men I 
was after, and a lot of smuggled wool too. And 
while we were working on the case, this lad 
picked up the hint about your cotton here. So 
I told him he might go with me when I went to 
look for the cotton.” 

“ Young man,” said Mr. Morgan, “ the Coast¬ 
wise Steamship Company is really greatly in¬ 
debted to you, and I wish you would let me give 
you a little token of our appreciation.” 

“ I couldn’t do that,” insisted Willie. “ I 
didn’t do it for money.” 

“ Then what did vou do it for? ” 

“ I did it to help Mr. Sheridan and because I 
want to learn all I can about the Secret Service. 
I want to be a Secret Service man.” 

“ You’re certainly qualified to be one, and I 
hope you land a job with the Service. Come see 
me if you don’t. There might be a stray job in 
my office by that time.” 

“ Thank you, Mr. Morgan. I am obliged to 
you. But there isn’t anything else I want to do 
so much as to be a Secret Service man. Good- 
bye.” 

The Secret Service man, meantime, had 


BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION 115 


hustled away from the pier with his prisoner as 
fast as he could go. He did not want to be seen 
by any more longshoremen than he could help. 
But Willie knew where he had gone, and after 
he had shaken hands with Mr. Morgan, he 
hustled down the street after his friend. He 
reached the police-station just as Sheridan was 
coming out of it. Sheridan was smiling. Willie 
guessed it was because he had beaten the police. 

“ What next? ” he asked. 

“ I guess we’ll go report to the Chief on these 
seizures,” Sheridan said. “ And I’ll do all I can 
to try to get you into the Service in some 
capacity. You have proved your worth.” 

“ I’ll take any job I can get,” said Willie, 
“ even to being an office boy. And I’ll be glad 
to get the job.” 

“ Now you’re talking sense,” said Willie’s 
companion. “ The way to get into any place or 
any job is to get in. It doesn’t matter whether 
you go in by the front door, or the kitchen door, 
or the cellar door. Once you are inside, you can 
go pretty much where you like. You may think 
that starting as an office boy in the Secret Service 
is like coming in through the cellar door. Maybe 
it is. But the point is that you are in. You can 
climb as fast as you have the ability to. But you 
can’t ever get anywhere in the Secret Service as 


116 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


long as you don’t belong to it—or in any other 
job, can you? ” 

“ No,” agreed Willie. “ I’ve been dead wrong 
about that notion. If I can get an office boy 
job, I’ll be the happiest fellow in the world.” 

“ Y r ou can get on the waiting list, and that’s 
sure. There may not be any vacancy at the pres¬ 
ent time. At any rate, we’ll see what happens. 
Come on.” 


CHAPTER VII 


WILLIE GETS IIIS CHANCE 

AT^ITHOUT further incident, the two made 
* * their way to Headquarters. Sheridan re¬ 
ported to his chief the discovery of the wool to¬ 
gether with the arrest of the wool smuggler. He 
also described in some detail the manner in which 
the cotton thief had been found and arrested. 

“ Of course we are not directly interested in 
mere theft,” said the Chief, “ but that was a good 
piece of work and I am glad you got the man. 
He would have stolen wool just as readily as he 
took cotton, if he had happened to be transport¬ 
ing wool. And sooner or later he would have had 
a load of it to carry. So you probably saved 
yourself trouble later on.” 

“No doubt of it. We owe that to our young 
friend here. It seems that he is quite desirous of 
getting into the Secret Service.” 

The Chief swung around in his chair and faced 
Willie. “ I’m afraid you’re aiming a bit high,” 
he said, with a smile. “ You know we never take 

anybody into the Service except the ablest and 

117 


118 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


most experienced operators. And we have to be 
very certain of a man’s integrity before we even 
consider him.” 

“ I understand all that,” said Willie, “ and I 
have no idea of trying to become a Secret Service 
agent offhand. But even the best men you have, 
had to make a start somewhere. I am willing to 
start at the very bottom, to do anything that 
would connect me with the Service, so that I 
could learn about your methods and study your 
problems. Mr. Sheridan thinks that maybe there 
might be a chance to work as an office boy. If I 
could get such a position you’d never be sorry 
you hired me. I would do the work just as near 
right as I knew how.” 

“ I believe you would be glad to have a lad 
like him in the Service, Chief,” remarked Sheri¬ 
dan. “ He has had quite a bit of experience, and 
he seems to grasp a situation quickly. Now, 
when I was trailing those fellows before we ar¬ 
rested Larsen, there were several men in the 
bunch I wanted to keep under observation. I 
feared the gang would split up and I would lose 
some of them, so I wanted to telephone for Mc¬ 
Carthy or somebody else to help me. But I 
didn’t want to risk losing the trail while telephon¬ 
ing. This kid was coming along the street. I 
never saw him before, but you can see by his face 


WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE 119 

that he is intelligent. So I got him to telephone 
for me.” 

The Chief nodded comprehension. 

“ Do you know what the lad did? When I 
gave him our telephone number he recognized it 
as the private call of the Secret Service, 
and-” 

“What!” exclaimed the Chief, turning 
sharply on Willie. His eyes seemed to bore right 
through Willie. “ How did you know that num¬ 
ber was the Secret Service call? ” 

“ Because your predecessor in office here gave 
us the number, when we came here during the 
war to help the Secret Service run down that se¬ 
cret wireless of the Germans. I belong to the 
Camp Brady Wireless Patrol, sir.” 

“You don’t say!” cried the Chief. “Of 
course I wasn’t in this district then, as you know, 
but I remember hearing about that matter. You 
boys were of very material assistance to the Se¬ 
cret Service then.” 

“We were mighty glad we could help,” said 
Willie. 

“ You see, Chief,” said Sheridan, “ I had rea¬ 
son for saying you would be glad to have the boy 
in the outfit. But I didn’t finish my story. I 
want you to know the rest of it. When this lad 
telephoned in and found it would not be possible 



120 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


for the office to send help, he decided he’d supply 
the help himself. I had on some old togs like a 
longshoreman, and the kid right away grasped 
the idea that his dolled up appearance would at¬ 
tract attention in a South Street booze joint. So 
he grabbed the first newsy he met, bought his old 
coat and cap, and dusted up his own good pants, 
so that he looked the part of a gutter-snipe all 
right. Then he trailed me to that hotbed of 
crookedness, Bill Dirkin’s oyster-house, and 
quietly slipped the message to me. And while we 
were in another of those joints last night, he used 
his ears to such good advantage that we landed 
that fellow Jensen, with his stolen cotton. That’s 
one we put over on the cops, and this lad is re¬ 
sponsible for it.” 

“ I wish I could help you, my lad,” said the 
Chief kindly. “ I wish I had a place for you in 
this office. But there isn’t a thing I can give 
you and I don’t see a chance of any opening.” 

“Not even as an office boy? ” cried Willie. 
His face became verv sober and he looked so 
doleful that both his companions laughed. 

“ Don’t take it so hard,” said the Chief. 
“ Boys who are really ambitious and really capa¬ 
ble are so scarce that there’s always a chance for 
one somewhere. Now, I’m going to send you 
down to the office of Mr. William King, the 


WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE 


121 


Special Agent of the Treasury. He’s always 
having trouble with inefficient office boys. He 
told me so the other day. He may have a place 
for you.” 

“ But I don’t want to work for the Treasury 
Department,” protested Willie. “ I want to be¬ 
come a Secret Service man.” 

“ The work is pretty much the same thing,” 
explained the Chief. “ The Special Agent of 
the Treasury is particularly charged to look after 
the collection of import duties in the port of New 
York. He has to see that all just duties are col¬ 
lected. In short, his particular business is to 
prevent smuggling and all frauds against the 
customs revenue. And he has a force of special 
agents who are Secret Service men, under an¬ 
other name, to see that smuggling is prevented. 
This wool smuggling case really belongs to them, 
but their men have become so well known about 
the water-front that we handled it for them. We 
are all secret agents of the government and we 
work together if it is necessary, though the Se¬ 
cret Service proper now confines its attention 
mostly to preventing counterfeiting and frauds 
against national papers like Liberty bonds. We 
also guard the President and national guests.” 

’ “ Oh! I see,” replied Willie. “ And do you 
think there might be a chance for me there? ” 


122 THE YOUNG "WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ Maybe not right away,” was the reply, “ but 
I’m sure there would be before very long.” 

“ I’m a thousand times obliged to you,” said 
Willie. “ Shall I go right down and see the Spe¬ 
cial Agent? ” 

“ Mr. Sheridan will go with you. Good-bye 
and good luck to you.” He shook hands heartily 
with Willie, then turned to his desk. With high 
hopes, Willie followed Sheridan down the cor¬ 
ridor to the elevator. 

Arriving presently at the Custom-house, the 
two mounted the broad flight of steps, with beau¬ 
tiful groups of heroic statuary on either hand. 
They passed through the great door, and entered 
the building. Engrossed though Willie was in 
the matter of getting a job, he paused involun¬ 
tarily to gaze at the beautiful structure in which 
he now found himself. So well proportioned 
was the building that Willie had twice looked at 
it that very morning without ever a thought of its 
size. In fact, it had seemed to him to be small. 
But now, as he looked down the long, roomy 
corridors and noted the lofty ceiling and the gen¬ 
eral air of spaciousness, he suddenly remembered 
that the building occupied the entire block on 
which it was located, and that it was seven stories 
high. 

Any one might be deceived by the exterior of 


WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE 


123 


the building, but nobody could be by the interior. 
It was rich and beautiful, and Willie felt very 
certain that it must be one of the finest custom¬ 
houses in the world—as it is. The beautiful mar¬ 
ble corridors, the exquisite metal work, of bronze 
and other materials, the wonderful woodwork, all 
impressed Willie by their beauty and finish. It 
made him proud to think that this magnificent 
structure belonged to his government. Some 
day, he hoped, this would be his headquarters, the 
place where he worked. His heart beat faster at 
the thought. 

He stepped into the elevator with his com¬ 
panion and was shot up to the fourth floor. 
Down a long corridor they went, and through a 
door at the end of it. The door opened into an 
anteroom. A sort of settee for callers occupied 
the space along one wall, and opposite this was 
a low railing, barring visitors from further prog¬ 
ress. Inside of this railing were a chair and a 
desk, obviously the place for an office boy. But 
no office boy was visible. Willie wondered if he 
would ever sit in that chair. For a moment or 
two they hesitated in the anteroom. Then Sheri¬ 
dan pushed through the gate and stuck his head 
through an inner door, that opened into a large, 
spacious, well-furnished office. 

“ Hello, Frank. Come in,” Willie heard a 


124 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

hearty voice calling from within the inner 
room. 

Sheridan turned and beckoned to Willie, who 
scurried through the gate and followed hard on 
the Secret Service man’s heels. 

“ How are you, Mr. King? ” Willie heard his 
companion say. “ I didn’t like to butt in here 
this way, but I couldn’t find anybody to take a 
word to you.” 

“Drat that office boy!” Mr. King said ve¬ 
hemently. “ He’s never on the job when he’s 
needed. I’d like to see an office boy once who 
would attend to his job.” 

“ Then take a good look at my young friend 
here, Mr. King. His name is Willie Brown. 
Willie, this is Mr. King. I knew you wanted a 
good office boy, and I brought him around. He’s 
all ready to go to work.” 

Mr. King looked puzzled. “ What’s the joke, 
Frank?” he asked, after he had spoken to 
Willie. 

“ There’s no joke at all,” said Sheridan. “ This 
lad wants a job the worst way. But he’s awful 
particular. There’s only one job he’ll take. He 
wants to be an office boy for the Special Agent 
of the Treasury, and he came all the way from 
central Pennsylvania to get the job.” 

The Special Agent of the Treasury looked 


WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE 125 

more puzzled than ever. “ I am no mind reader, 
Frank,” he said. “ Explain.” 

The Secret Service man laughed. “ It’s this 
way, Mr. King. This boy is dead set upon be» 
coming a Secret Service man, and-” 

“ Been reading dime novels, like the rest of 
them, I’ll bet,” said Mr. King. “ I don’t want 
him.” 

“ Of course you don’t,” went on the Secret 
Service man, “ but you will when you find out a 
little more about him. In the first place, he 
doesn’t read dime novels. In the second, he be¬ 
longed to that bunch of wireless boys that helped 
to catch the German spy, Sanders, and his crew 
during the war. Third, he has set his heart upon 
becoming a Secret Service man. You know as 
well as I do that we couldn’t take him into the 
Service. But the Chief is interested in the lad, 
and he knows that you are in need of a good office 
boy. So he sent me down here to see what you 
could do for the lad.” 

“Passed the buck to me, did he?” said Mr. 
King, but he smiled when he said it. 

“ B-rrrrrrrrrrr,” went the desk telephone. 

The Special Agent leaned forward and swung 
the instrument around toward himself. “ Hello,” 
he called. 

“ Yes. This is King 


Yes. They are 




126 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

all ready. I’ll send them this minute. Good¬ 
bye.” 

He pressed a button on his desk. “ B-zzzzzzzzz! 
B-zzzzzzzz! B-zzzzzzzz! ” went the buzzer at the 
office boy’s desk. There was no response. 
“ B-zzzzzzzz! ” went the buzzer again, long and 
angrily. 

“Drat that boy!” said the Special Agent. 
“ I need him the worst way and I’d bet a dollar 
he’s out playing craps. I’ve got to get some 
papers up to the Deputy Attorney General at 
once.” 

Willie leaped to his feet. “ May I take them? ” 
he said. 

“ Do you know where the Attorney General’s 
office is? ” 

“No, sir. But I can find it if you give me 
the address.” 

“ Do you think I dare trust him with these 
papers, Frank? They are important.” 

“ They’ll be perfectly safe,” said the Secret 
Service man. 

“ Then you take this package, Willie, and de¬ 
liver it at the Attorney General’s office. Then 
come back here, and I’ll make it right with you.” 
The Special Agent wrote down an address on a 
slip of paper and handed it to Willie. 

Willie took it, thrust the package of papers 


WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE 


127 


into the inside pocket of his coat, buttoned the 
coat up tight, and bolted out of the office. 

When Willie was gone, the Special Agent 
turned to the Secret Service man. “ Tell me all 
you know about the lad, Frank,” he said. “ Your 
Chief telephoned me you were coming and put 
in a good word for the kid. Is he really any 
good? ” 

“ My own opinion is that he’s a very unusual 
boy, though I wouldn’t dare say that where he 
could hear me. I’ve known him only a couple 
of days, but I happen to know a great deal about 
that business with Sanders. Those Germans had 
us worried sick, Mr. King, absolutely sick. The 
increase in crimes against the government, after 
we declared war upon Germany, was so tremen¬ 
dous that our force of operatives was ridiculously 
inadequate. We couldn’t begin to cope with the 
situation. Those spies were sending out news 
of every movement made by our naval vessels 
and transports, and we simply didn’t have the 
men to run them down. Then these boys came 
from Pennsylvania, to help us. I no longer re¬ 
member how they were brought here: but they 
established a wireless watch, caught and deci¬ 
phered the spy messages, and finally located the 
German wireless outfit itself. And we got the 
spies, too. Between you and me, those boys did 


128 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


some mighty fine detective work. Of course, 
they had an older man working with them, but 
the boys themselves displayed an unusual amount 
of initiative and judgment.” 

“ I’m mighty glad to hear all this. You see 
what sort of an office boy I have. If you are 
sure Willie Brown would be an improvement, 
I’ll transfer my present boy to another post and 
try Willie.” 

“ Well, I’ll tell you what I know about him 
myself,” and the Secret Service man related the 
incidents of the past two days. 

“ If he proves to be half as good as he sounds,” 
commented Mr. King, “ I’ll be indebted to you 
to my dying day. Hello, here he is back again. 
He didn’t waste any time.” 

Willie came into the office and handed Mr. 
King a piece of paper. “ What is this? ” asked 
the Treasury Agent. 

“A receipt for the papers,” replied Willie. 

“ I didn’t ask you to get me a receipt,” said 
Mr. King. 

“ I know you didn’t,” replied Willie. “ I got 
that receipt for myself. It’s proof that I did my 
job right.” 

“ Do you always do things as clever as that? ” 

“ That wasn’t clever, Mr. King. That was 
common sense. Sometimes I make mistakes, 


WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE 129 

Mr. King. But I always do the best I know 
how.” 

“You admit that you make mistakes? And 
then you come asking for a job?” And the 
Special Agent looked very stern. 

“ I guess a fellow who didn’t make mistakes 
sometimes wouldn’t make much of anything 
else,” said Willie. 

“ Well, you didn’t make the mistake of lying 
to me,” said Mr. King. “ If there’s anything I 
hate, it’s a bov who lies.” And now his face was 
full of smiles. 

“ If you’ll give me a job,” said Willie, “I’ll 
engage to tell you the truth—always.” 

“ Mr. Sheridan has been telling me a little 
about your work. Now I want to know a little 
more about yourself. Do you smoke ciga¬ 
rettes? ” 

“ No, sir.” 

“ Do you play craps? ” 

“ Never played in my life.” 

“ Do you read dime novels? Mr. Sheridan 
says you don’t, but perhaps he doesn’t know.” 

“ I don’t,” said Willie, “but I read lots of other 
things. I wouldn’t want to agree not to read. 
I can’t go to school any longer, and if I am to go 
on learning, I must continue to read.” 

“ That’s all right so long as it doesn’t interfere 



130 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


with your work. Now if I give you a job, will 
you be on hand during office hours, attend 
promptly to the work you are given to do, and 
answer that buzzer promptly when it rings? ” 

“Absolutely,” answered Willie. 

“ Then I guess you’re hired. Report here to¬ 
morrow at eight o’clock.” 

“ Do you really mean it? ” cried Willie, so de¬ 
lighted that he could hardly keep from throwing 
his hat in the air. 

“ Surest think you know. Now, be sure 
you’re on time—to-morrow and every other day. 
Good-bye. I’ll see you in the morning. I’m 
obliged to you, Frank,” and the Special Agent 
nodded good-bye to his visitors. 

All the way out of the building Willie walked 
on air. This beautiful structure was going to be 
his headquarters after all. Here he was going 
to build his fortune. At last he had his chance. 
To be sure, his chance was only that of an office 
boy, but Willie no longer cared about that. He 
had seen a light. 


CHAPTER VIII 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

\\ 7TLLIE was determined that that light 
* * should not fail. He meant to keep it 
burning brightly. He determined never to for¬ 
get that the point was not where he started in 
the race, but where he ended. The main thing 
was to get into the race. And now he was in. 
He remembered that somebody had said there 
were three secrets of success: first, work; second, 
more work; third, still more work. That made 
Willie happy, because he knew he could work 
as hard as anybody, and he believed he could 
learn to work as effectively as anybody. At any 
rate, he meant to try. He was going to think of 
nothing but his work—that is, after he got to 
work. To-day, he was going to celebrate with 
Roy. And so, after parting with his big friend, 
Sheridan, he made haste to reach the Lycom¬ 
ing. 

“ Talk of angels and they are sure to appear,” 

laughed Roy, as Willie came bustling into th$ 

131 


132 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Lycoming's wireless cabin. “We were just talk¬ 
ing about you and hoping we should see you soon. 
Mr. Robbins was good enough to come up to chat 
with me. His big rush is over now.” 

“ Mighty glad to see you both again,” said 
Willie, shaking hands with Roy and the purser. 
“ I’ve got the best news in the world. I’ve got 
a job, Roy. And what do you think it is? I’m 
an office boy.” And Willie laughed so heartily 
and good-naturedly that both his friends laughed 
with him. 

“Congratulations!” returned Roy. “I’m 
glad you got a job, and better pleased still that 
you like it. What changed your mind about be¬ 
ing an office boy? ” 

“ I guess you did. Mr. Sheridan helped, too. 
You both told me the same thing: that the point 
was not so much where I started as it was to get 
started. I see that this is true. I’m under way 
now. Watch me go.” And Willie laughed 
happily. 

“ We’ll do more than watch,” said the purser. 
“ We’ll boost. Let’s start off with a little feed 
to celebrate. It’s about dinner-time. I’m 
deucedly tired of ship’s grub. Let’s go get a bite 
of some landsman’s cooking—something we don’t 
get every day in the week. Now let me see. 
There’s Chinatown. Roy and I have been there. 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 133 

And we’ve been to Little Italy. And we’ve 
eaten in the Ghetto. Where can we find some¬ 
thing that is new to both of you? ” 

The purser paused in thought. Then, “ I 
know,” he said. “ We’ll step into an Armenian 
restaurant. That will be new to you both, I’m 
sure. And it is the handiest place we can find. 
The Armenians and Syrians have located close 
by, in this end of New York, and we can get a 
first-class meal. Come on. Let’s go.” 

“That will be bully!” cried Willie, with en¬ 
thusiasm. “ I’d like that.” 

“ What about you, Roy? ” asked the purser. 

“ I’m willing to try anything once. And after 
my experiences with you, I know it will be worth 
while. You certainly have all the places spotted 
where they make good things to eat.” 

The purser laughed. “ Come on, then. Let’s 
go.” 

The three put on their hats and left the Ly¬ 
coming. They passed through the long pier shed 
to West Street and turned down that thorough¬ 
fare. Willie felt very proud to be walking with 
his two friends, for they looked really dis¬ 
tinguished in their well-fitting, neatly kept uni¬ 
forms. The street was jammed with people, and 
thousands more were pouring out of the great 
office-buildings to get their noonday meal. 


134 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


More than one passer-by turned to look at 
Willie’s nautical friends. 

“We picked out a pretty poor time to get any¬ 
thing to eat,” said the purser. “ This is the very 
height of the luncheon hour. If you aren’t real 
hungry, I suggest we knock about a bit and let 
the jam ease up. Then we’ll feel free to eat as 
slowly as we like and stay as long as we like. 
And we’ll get better service, too. What do you 
say?” 

“ Suits me,” said Willie, who was so happy 
that he didn’t care what happened. 

“ I’m agreed,” said Roy. 

“ Good,” replied the purser. “ The only ques¬ 
tion is how we shall put in the time.” 

“ I suspect Willie would like to see some of the 
sights,” remarked Roy. “ He’s been in New 
York before, but there are lots of things neither 
of us have seen.” 

“ All right. We’ll just keep going until we 
strike something he wants to see.” 

They continued on down West Street, along 
the water-front. The movement of traffic proved 
a continual fascination to Willie. He never tired 
of watching the endless procession of trucks, 
drays, express wagons, motor-cars, and other ve¬ 
hicles, with their unbelievable loads of merchan¬ 
dise. From time to time they sauntered out on a 


135 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

pier, their uniforms gaining them admission with¬ 
out question. 

“ See that odd little boat over there? ” said 
the purser, as they walked out on one of the 
piers. 

“ Sure,” replied Willie. “ I can’t help seeing 
her. She’s the only boat in the dock.” 

“ Do you notice anything unusual about her? ” 
said the purser. 

“ Sure. It’s the way she’s decked over. She 
looks like a trim little steam-yacht boarded up for 
the winter. It looks as though her owner had 
built a sort of second story on her deck. She has 
hardly any windows, either. I notice she flies 
the United States flag.” 

“ Have you any idea what she is? ” 

“ Not the slightest,” said Willie. 

“ Well, that’s a mail-boat. She conveys the 
mails from incoming steamers. The mail-boat 
rushes down to Quarantine, comes up alongside 
of a liner, and opens her hatches. The steamer 
shoots the mail-sacks down into the little boat, 
which rushes them to land.” 

“ That’s something else I didn’t know,” re¬ 
marked Willie. “ I’m obliged to you for point¬ 
ing her out.” 

They left the pier and continued on down 
West Street. As they crossed that thoroughfare 


136 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

to the sidewalk, a truck passed them, loaded with 
bananas. But the bananas were far different in 
appearance from the bunches of rich yellow fruit 
seen so commonly in the windows of grocery 
stores. Each bunch was green—fruit as well as 
stem. And there were dozens and dozens of 
bunches. Willie noticed the truck, but thought 
little of it. He had seen green bananas before, 
though perhaps never so many at one time. Be¬ 
fore they had gone half a block, another truck 
passed them, also loaded high with green ba¬ 
nanas. Soon another came past and then an¬ 
other. 

“ Well,” cried Willie, “ would you look at all 
the bananas? Got enough there to feed the na¬ 
tion.” 

“ If you knew how many it takes to feed the 
nation,” said the purser, “ you would know that 
those few wagon loads are hardly a drop in the 
bucket. Why, the banana ships are going all the 
time, rushing right back to Central America as 
soon as they get rid of their cargo, and then rush¬ 
ing home again as fast as they can, so that their 
fruit won’t get baked on the way.” 

“ Baked bananas! ” exclaimed Willie, his eyes 
open wide with astonishment. “ You’re string¬ 
ing me.” 

“ Not a bit of it,” smiled the purser. 



137 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

“Tell me what you mean, then.” 

“ Just what I said. If they don’t hustle home 
with their fruit as fast as steam will carry them, 
the bananas are likely to cook. Then they are a 
dead loss, for the Board of Health will not allow 
the sale of bananas like that. Why, I stQod on 
one of these banana piers one night and watched 
the handlers throw half a million bananas over¬ 
board.” 

“A half million bananas!”) cried Willie. 
“ How many bananas does one ship carry, any¬ 
way? ” 

“ I can’t tell you exactly, but it runs in my 
head that a ship carries somewhere in the neigh¬ 
borhood of 5,000 bunches.” 

“ How many bananas are there in a bunch? ” 

“ I can’t tell you that exactly, either. But if 
you will recall how a bunch of bananas looks, you 
will remember that the bananas come in little 
clusters, like hands. I often buy one of those 
clusters, and I know they have a dozen or more 
good bananas to the hand. A good bunch of 
bananas will probably have twelve to eighteen 
or twenty of these hands. So I would say that 
a small bunch contains 150 bananas and a big 
bunch 300. If we split the difference, and say 
200 bananas to a bunch and multiply that by 
5,000, we’ll be within gunshot of the number of 


138 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

bananas in a boat load. That makes 1,000,000 
bananas/’ 

“ Whew! ” whistled Willie. “ Think of that. 
A million bananas in one boat load. But tell 
me. How can they get baked? ” 

“ Did you ever sit on a tin roof in the middle 
of a hot July day? ” demanded the purser. 

Willie chuckled. “ I have sat down on one,” 
he said, “ but I didn’t stay long.” 

His companions laughed, and Mr. Robbins 
continued, “ A steel steamer in the tropics heats 
up just about the way a tin roof does in July. 
Of course an effort is made to ventilate the fruit, 
but if the ship does not get out of that intense 
tropic heat in pretty quick time, you can imagine 
what happens to the bananas inside. Perhaps 
they do not literally bake, but they are so af¬ 
fected by the heat that they are unfit to eat.” 

“ That must have been a sight—to watch them 
throw half a million bananas overboard,” said 
Willie. “ How do they handle bananas, any¬ 
way? They can’t handle them as they do bales 
and boxes.” 

“ Would you like to see them unloading a 
banana boat? ” asked the purser. 

“ I sure would.” 

“ Well, there’s evidently a boat unloading now, 
or these wagon loads of fresh fruit would not be 



139 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

passing. The fruit pier is near at hand and we’ll 
drop in and watch them unload, while we are 
waiting to get our dinner.” 

“ Thank you,” said Willie. “ That will be 
bully!” 

Presently they came to a banana pier. Empty 
wagons were streaming into it and trucks laden 
with green bananas were issuing from it. The 
visitors entered the pier and walked along it until 
they came to where the unloading was in prog¬ 
ress. Then, standing to one side, out of the way, 
they watched the process. 

The empty wagons formed a line on the far 
side of the pier. On the near side of the pier, 
beside the steamer, several wagons were being 
loaded. The banana handlers were apparently 
mostly foreigners. They had neither trucks nor 
baskets, however, but carried the great bunches 
of bananas in their arms as carefully as they 
might convey so many infants. Down one side 
of the gangplank walked a line of empty-handed 
carriers, while up the other side came the men 
bearing the big bunches of fruit. They moved 
in a steady stream—into the ship and out, into 
the ship and out; and one man walked close on 
another’s heels. The bananas were passed by the 
carriers to waiting hands in the trucks, and the 
great bunches were piled carefully and skilfully, 


140 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


sometimes with layers of salt hay between to save 
them from being bruised in the trucks. 

As fast as a wagon was loaded, the driver drove 
away, and a wagon from the waiting line turned 
and pulled into its place. Thus the fruit moved 
in a ceaseless stream from vessel to wagon, and 
from pier shed to store or freight-house. For 
many of these bananas would be sent inland by 
train, to supply folks in interior towns. 

The steady movement of fruit fascinated 
Willie. It made him think of the constant flow 
of a stream of water. For a long time he 
watched in silence. Then the purser caught his 
eye. 

“ What do you think of it? ” he asked. 

“ I can’t tell you,” said Willie. “ It’s wonder¬ 
ful. It gives me a feeling I can’t express. But I 
know one thing. I shall never forget this scene. 
And I am a thousand times obliged to you for 
showing it to me.” 

“ I’m glad we happened to think of it,” said 
the purser. “ It’s as good as a movie.” 

“ It’s a heap sight better,” commented Willie. 
“ This is real.” 

“ I thought the movie was reel, too,” said Roy. 

“ If it weren’t for the possibility of spoiling 
your flue uniform, Roy,” laughed Willie, “ I’d 
soak you with one of those green bananas.” And 


141 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

he pointed to the pieces of unripe fruit on the 
pier that had dropped from the bunches while 
they were being handled. 

“ Do you know,” said the purser, after con¬ 
sulting his watch, “ that it has been more than 
an hour since we left the Lycoming? It’s half- 
past one. I think we can safely get under way.” 

They left the fruit pier, and striking directly 
away from the water-front, at once found them¬ 
selves in a maze of small streets. Curious, in¬ 
deed, was the transformation. All about them 
stood sky-scrapers, towering aloft hundreds of 
feet. Yet the little thoroughfares they were now 
penetrating were lined with low, old, brick build¬ 
ings, mostly dwellings or dwelling-houses that 
had been converted into shops. They were small, 
low, dingy, ill-kept buildings of three or four 
stories with sloping roofs and dormer-windows. 
Their lines were good. Some of the doorways 
were still beautiful, despite the rough treatment 
they had had. It required little imagination to 
picture the time when these were the homes of 
well-to-do people. 

They passed what had been a saloon, and prob¬ 
ably still was, which bore on its window the name 
of Casey. 

“ Just look at that name,” said the purser. 
“ That’s a relic of antiquity.” 


142 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

“ What do you mean? ” asked Willie. 

“ Why, that is a reminder of a lost people/’ 
laughed the purser. 

“A lost people!” cried Roy. “With Tam¬ 
many Hall full of Murphys, and Caseys, and 
Hennesseys, and O’Haras! What are you giv¬ 
ing us? ” 

“It’s a fact, though,” said the purser. “ Of 
course, there are plenty of Irishmen in New 
York, but not around here. Yet some years ago, 
this was a solid Irish settlement. And before the 
Irish, it was a region of fine American homes. 
Now nobody lives here except Armenians, 
Syrians, and a few Turks. We have migrations 
from location to location in a city, as well as from 
country to country.” 

“ So these folks are Svrians and Armenians, 

V 7 

are they? ” said Willie, quietly. “ I’m mighty 
glad to have a chance to see them.” 

All about them were Armenian shops. 
Swarthy, black-haired women sat in dark door¬ 
ways, singly and in groups, chatting and indus¬ 
triously doing needlework as they talked. 
Mostly their features were regular and pleasing. 
Their olive complexions were strikingly beauti¬ 
ful. Their teeth, exposed when they laughed, 
seemed to be as fine as pearls. Generally they 
wore shawls about their shoulders, or thrown over 


143 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

their heads. These were of fine, thin material, 
gay and even gaudy, but very beautiful for all 
that. They formed splendid settings for the 
dark faces they framed. There were men of the 
same races about, too. Not large, also swarthy, 
with piercing, black eyes, the men attracted far 
less attention than the women. Their dress ap¬ 
peared quite similar to that of most Europeans 
or Americans, though a close observer would 
have noticed many small differences, in shoes, 
neckwear, ornaments, and so on. 

All these foreigners talked for the most part 
in their native tongues. They seemed to chatter 
interminably. The men from the Lycoming 
could understand nothing of what was said. But 
they gathered, from the tones and the glances 
that were bestowed upon them, that they them¬ 
selves were the subject of some of the talk. In¬ 
deed, on several occasions Willie noticed that as 
they came along women jumped from the shop 
steps on which they were sitting and darted into 
the stores behind them or called excitedly to per¬ 
sons within. Then the women sat down on the 
steps again and went on with their lace making 
or knitting. But always the women seemed to 
be watching them. At first Willie thought noth¬ 
ing of this. But after two or three of the women 
had £*one through Bie same performance, Willie 


144 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


saw that it was more than a coincidence. Some¬ 
thing about their appearance attracted undue at¬ 
tention to them. 

Presently Willie fell behind his comrades, in 
passing a group of pedestrians, and he purposely 
remained behind, even dropping back several 
yards, as though he had no connection with Roy 
and the purser. They were deep in an argument 
and for some time did not notice that Willie was 
not abreast of them. 

Willie took advantage of this opportunity to 
observe what was passing. He saw that he him¬ 
self attracted no attention whatever, but that at 
shop after shop, on the approach of Roy and the 
purser, there was a flutter of skirts and a woman 
scurried into the shop. But Willie could see 
nothing in the shops that explained it. After a 
while he came to the conclusion that it must be 
his friends’ uniforms that caused the commotion. 
He was a bit puzzled about that, but when he 
recalled that he had heard how badly some of 
these foreigners had fared at the hands of Ameri¬ 
can immigration officials, he thought he under¬ 
stood it. The women, he thought, must have 
some fear of ship’s officers. 

Willie was just stepping forward to speak to 
his friends about it, when he heard the purser 
say, “ Here we are. Where’s Willie? ” 


145 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

“ Right here,” called Willie. 

“ This is the place where we eat,” said the pur¬ 
ser, and the three entered a dingy old house that 
had become an Armenian restaurant. Willie en¬ 
tirely forgot about the incident he had observed, 
for the restaurant was unlike any place in which 
he had ever been. 

It was on the second floor of one of the old 
houses with which the street was filled. The 
brick wall on the street side had largely been re¬ 
moved, and great glass windows put in, making 
the place light and pleasant. The room was not 
large. It was furnished with small, round tables. 
On the walls were various printed cards and 
placques, but Willie could read none of them. 
He judged that they were printed in Turkish 
characters. There were a few tapestries hung 
about, but otherwise little attempt had been 
made at ornamentation. 

Willie’s attention was instantly riveted by the 
men in the place. Slight of build, dressed in 
dark clothes, and displaying considerable jew¬ 
elry, with swarthy skins, black hair, and piercing 
eyes, they sat indolently in groups, conversing in 
their native tongue. All of them were smoking, 
mostly cigarettes; but two of the groups were 
gathered about Turkish hookahs, from which all 
of those in the groups were smoking. 


146 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Willie had never before seen hookahs, hut he 
had read about them, and he knew instantly that 
the strange things he was looking at were hub¬ 
ble-bubbles or water-pipes, so extensively used in 
the Orient. The thing made him think of a large 
water carafe with a gaudy, handleless teacup set 
atop of it. The teacup was a highly ornate to¬ 
bacco-bowl. From it a tube descended into the 
carafe-like water container, which was of glass, 
also ornamented. Leading from this water bowl 
were several pliant tubes of some length, that 
terminated in mouthpieces like pipes. Each of 
the smokers held one of these tubes in his hand. 
From time to time each smoker raised his mouth¬ 
piece to his lips and drew smoke through the 
tube. At each inhalation the smoke was sucked 
down from the glowing tobacco-bowl through the 
water, which bubbled and bubbled. 

At the entrance of the three Americans a sud¬ 
den hush fell on the place. Everv eve in the 
room was directed toward them. But when the 
purser and his companions returned the gaze, 
eyes were turned away again. Yet Willie saw 
well enough, that though no one was staring at 
them, not a move of theirs escaped observation. 
The observation was sly, furtive. It made Willie 
think of a cat watching for a mouse, apparently 
half asleep, with eyes all but closed, yet intensely 


147 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

alert and ready to spring at the appearance of 
so much as a whisker. In the same way Willie 
felt that the purser, Roy, and he were being 
watched. The various groups in the place re¬ 
sumed their talk. The men lounged in their 
chairs in an indolent, indescribably lazy way, not 
unlike a cat stretched out by a kitchen fire. And 
indolently they puffed at their cigarettes and 
hookah tubes. 

Soon the feeling of uneasiness wore off. The 
purser seemed to feel perfectly at home, and Roy 
likewise paid small attention to those about him. 
He was continuing his discussion with the purser. 

The latter picked up a bill of fare and shoved 
it across the table to his companions. “ What 
shall it be? ” he inquired. 

“ You might as well ask me what the people 
of Mars look like,” laughed Roy, examining the 
card. “ I could answer just as intelligently. 
These names don’t mean a thing to me.” 

“ How would it be if I order? ” inquired the 
purser. “ We can have several large orders, 
from which we can all be helped. We’ll find 
some things that way that we shall all like, I’m 
sure.” 

“ That suits us,” said Roy and Willie together. 

The purser consulted his card and then talked 
to the waiter, who presently returned with a huge 


148 THP] YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOE 


tray full of curious foods. He brought rice with 
cooked tomatoes and meat and spice in it, called 
pilau; and meat rolled into a hollow cylinder and 
filled with unnamable but delectable vegetables 
and savory spices and raisins; and cucumbers, 
hollowed out and stuffed, then baked; and curi¬ 
ous forms of bread; and pastries; and dishes com¬ 
posed of baked fruits with raisins; and other 
strange delicacies, so that the little table was 
filled to overflowing. But the party did not ob¬ 
ject to that. Each was hungry by this time and 
they attacked the food vigorously. After a 
single mouthful they needed no urging. “ Yum! 
Yum! ” said Roy, sampling the stuffed meat roll. 
“ This sure is great! ” Then he fell to with a 
will. The purser smiled with pleasure. For a 
few moments there was little conversation among 
the three. They were too busy to talk. When 
they had ended, the platters were bare. Turkish 
coffee was served in tiny cups. When they were 
entirely through with their meal, the purser paid 
the bill, and the three went out. 

Every eye followed them. Willie was the last 
one out of the door. He paused a moment in the 
hallway. And in that moment he heard a per¬ 
fect babel of voices within the restaurant. Ap¬ 
parently every man in the place was talking at 
full speed. 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 149 

“ They’re discussing us,” thought Willie. 
Then he followed his companions down-stairs. 

It took the party but a few minutes to get back 
to the Lycoming. As they climbed up to the 
wireless cabin, they met a young man coming 
down. He wore the uniform of a wireless 
operator. 

“ Hello, Reynolds,” cried Roy, springing for¬ 
ward and holding out his hand to the visitor. 
“ I’m mighty glad to see you. Can’t you come 

back and stay a while? ” 

«/ 

“ Sure,” said the visitor. “ That’s what I came 
for. I had a little time off and thought I’d come 
over for a chat.” 

The purser stepped forward and shook hands 
warmly with the visitor. Then Roy presented 
Willie. 

“ Mr. Reynolds,” he said, “ I am glad to make 
you acquainted with my old friend, Willie 
Brown. Willie belongs to the Wireless Patrol 
you have heard me tell about. He’s a fine wire¬ 
less man, so we have much in common.” 

Then turning to Willie, Roy continued, 
“ Willie, Mr. Reynolds is the wireless man on the 
Ward liner Morro Castle. We got acquainted 
down in Galveston, and we’ve become pretty 
good friends. You see our boats run up and 
down the coast. Usually we are within talking 


150 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


distance of each other, and when our work is out 
of the way, we often chat at long range. We 
keep each other posted as to what is happening 
along the route.” 

Willie and Mr. Reynolds shook hands warmly. 
“ I’m mighty glad to know you, Mr. Reynolds,” 
said Willie. “ I’m glad to know any of Roy’s 
friends, for he and Mr. Robbins are almost the 
only people I know in New Y^ork. And I’m 
especially glad you are a wireless man. I’ve got 
my own wireless set here, but, besides Roy, I 
have no one near that I can talk to. Maybe I 
can talk to you when you’re near port.” 

“ I’d be delighted,” said Reynolds. “ And 
when I’m not near port, too, if we can reach 
each other. How far can your set carry? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said Willie. “ I made my 
outfit myself. I run it now with dry cells, so it 
won’t carry very far. But when I’m able to, I’m 
going to get a battery powerful enough to carry 
as far as Central City, Pennsylvania. I want to 
be able to talk to the fellows back home.” 

“ Then we can talk at considerable distances,” 
said Mr. Reynolds. “ Where is your set in¬ 
stalled?” 

“ It’s in that old suit case under Roy’s bunk,” 
laughed Willie. “ I don’t know where I’ll set it 
up. I just landed in New York and have no 


151 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

boarding-house yet. I’m going to work in the 
Custom-house. If it is possible, I should like to 
live near by. That will save time and be inter¬ 
esting, too. There are so many fascinating 
things to see down here. Then, too, I’d he near 
Roy’s pier, so he and I can see each other easily 
when he gets into port.” 

“ That sounds like sense* I have no doubt you 
will find just what you are looking for. Sup¬ 
pose we exchange call signals. Then we can talk 
as soon as you get your outfit rigged up. The 
Morro Castle’s call is KWC.” 

“ And my call,” said Willie, “ will be the same 
that I had back home. I am regularly licensed, 
but I suppose I may have to have my license 
transferred. At any rate, my old call is CBM. 
Our club call is CBWC. It’s a bit irregular, 
perhaps, but it is the call we chose when we 
formed the wireless club. The initials stand for 
Camp Brady Wireless Club.” 

“ I see,” said Mr. Reynolds. “ And how do 
you come to have the call CBM? ” 

“ It’s this way. The CB stands for Camp 
Brady and the M is my letter.” 

“ I should think your letter would be B for 
Brown.” 

“ You would naturally think so, but we 
couldn’t choose our calls that way. We had more 


152 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


than one fellow with the same initial. So we 
just picked our letters in our regular firing or¬ 
der. You know we had a pistol squad, and we 
used to shoot in turn. The letter M fell to me.” 

“ I see,” said Mr. Reynolds. “ As Shake¬ 
speare says, ‘What’s in a name,’ anyway? So 
I know your call, that is sufficient.” 

“ Well, any time you hear the call CBWC, 
you’ll know that somebody is trying to get the 
fellows at home. And it would almost certainly 
be either Roy or myself. And if you hear the 
call CBM, you’ll know that somebody wants me. 
That would most likely be Rov. At any rate, I 
hope you will be sounding the call CBM before 
very long. I’ll let you know when I get my out¬ 
fit set up.” 

In a few minutes the purser went back to his 
office. Mr. Reynolds chatted a while and re¬ 
turned to his steamer. Roy and Willie were 
alone. 

“ Roy,” said Willie, his face suddenly sober, 
“ I don’t feel exactly right about this business. 
I was so happy over getting my job that I didn’t 
think about you at first. I came here as your 
guest. Now I’ve accepted a job and engaged to 
go to work to-morrow. That means I can’t make 
the trip to Galveston with you. I didn’t think 
before how that looks. I’ve half a notion to go 


153 


IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER 

back and throw up the job. I’m not treating 
you fair, Roy.” 

“ You blooming old chump,” cried Roy. 
“ You’ll do nothing of the sort. Of course, I am 
sorry that you are not going to make the trip with 
me. But that is only a pleasure deferred. You 
can go the first time you have a vacation. And 
besides, having you permanently in New York 
means a hundred times as much to me as having 
you on shipboard with me for a few days. Why, 
now you’ll always be here when I get back from 
the South. We can have several nights together 

a 

after each trip. And we can talk to each other 
for some hours after I leave port or before I 
reach it on the return. I’ll say it’s bully. So 
don’t you worry one bit longer about me. We’ll 
have to-day together, anyway. Then I want you 
to jump in and make a reputation for yourself. 
And I know you’re going to do it. You’ve got 
it in you, and I expect soon to hear that you are 
having wonderful adventures.” 

“ Yes, sharpening lead-pencils and filling the 
boss’s ink-well,” laughed Willie. 

Alas for Willie! Life was not to be so placid 
for him as he fancied. 


CHAPTER IX 


UNDER A CLOUD 


ILLIE’S troubles began the next morn- 



▼ ▼ ing. Long before the appointed hour, he 
was on hand at the Custom-house. But he found 
he was alone. The elevator man was there and a 
few persons who seemed to be employed about 
the building were visible, but the office in which 
Willie was to work was deserted. Willie did not 
know what to do. He did not like to venture 
boldly into the offices, nor was he desirous of 
waiting outside, at the door. So he stepped 
within the anteroom and sat down on the little 
settee. Presently one or two men entered the 
anteroom and brushed past him without paying 
any attention to him. 

After a while a rangy, well-grown boy came 
up the corridor, whistling noisily. Willie had a 
good opportunity to observe him as he came down 
the long passageway. There was a swagger 
about the lad’s carriage that suggested conceit 
or at least self-complacency. The boy’s cap was 

tilted rakishly over one ear. Even before Willie 

154 


UNDER A CLOUD 


155 


could see his face distinctly, he felt sure the lad 
before him was a “ smarty.” When the boy drew 
close enough so that his features could be dis¬ 
tinguished plainly, Willie was certain that his 
guess was correct. In fact, he saw at once that 
the fellow was more than “ smart.” He was 
tough. A leering, ugly expression was plainly 
marked on his face. Hard lines were already 
stamped about his mouth and eyes. And Willie 
knew without ever hearing the boy speak, that his 
talk would be vulgar and profane. He was the 
more certain when the lad came blustering into 
the office, laid his hand on the swinging gate, and 
pushed it open. The first two fingers of the hand 
were stained a deep brown, from cigarettes. 

The lad pushed through the gate, which he 
allowed to slam shut with a bang. He glanced 
into all the rooms of the suite, probably trying to 
discover if he was on hand before the boss. He 
saw no one but a few minor clerks who had come 
in while Willie was waiting at the door. Then 
he returned to the little railing, and facing 
Willie, said in a coarse voice, “ Whatcha want? ” 

“ I’m the new office boy,” said Willie, quietly, 
feeling an instant and instinctive dislike for the 
lad before him. 

“You are, hey?” said the lad, giving Willie 
an ugly stare. “ Well, you’re a deuce of an 


156 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


office boy! ” and the fellow swore noisily. Then, 
after another stare, he went on, “ Whose cradle 
did they rob to get you, huh? ” 

At this reference to his size, Willie flushed 
angrily. The lad who was talking to him was a 
full head taller than Willie, and yet he was a full 
year younger. Willie, of course, did not know 
that, but he instantly guessed that the office boy 
had not had nearly as much schooling as he him¬ 
self had had. Willie was right, for the office boy 
had never even gotten into high school. 

Willie’s impulse was to make an angry and 
cutting reply, but he restrained himself. It 
wouldn’t do, he thought, to get into a quarrel 
with his predecessor before he himself was ac¬ 
tually installed in office. And no sooner had 
Willie thought that than it occurred to him that 
perhaps the lad before him was trying to pick a 
quarrel with him. He might want to discredit 
him, or he might want to give him a heating. 
There wasn’t any question that the lad probably 
could whip him in a fight. Not only was the hoy 
a head taller than Willie, but he probably 
weighed forty pounds more than Willie. So 
Willie decided to take a tight rein on himself. 
He sat still and made no reply. 

The insolent office boy promptly tried another 
line of attack. He began to question Willie, as 



UNDER A CLOUD 


157 


though he were examining him for the place. 
But at that juncture Mr. Iving came bustling in. 
Willie was greatly relieved when the tall Special 
Agent stepped through the doorway. 

“ Hello, Willie! ” he cried, seeing his new 
helper. “ Glad to see you’re on hand promptly.” 
Then the Special Agent turned to the big office 
boy. “ Tom,” he said, “ I wish you’d show this 
boy just what his duties are, before you go to 
your new job.” 

The big lad took Willie in charge and in¬ 
structed him in his new duties. “ You sit at this 
here desk,” he said, “ and when anybody comes 
in, you see that he gets to the Chief quick. See? 
And you answer the buzzer when Mr. King rings. 
See? And vou take care of his desk and his mail. 
See? ” The lad glanced quickly round. Mr. 
King was not in his room. The old office boy 
stepped into it and beckoned to Willie. “ You 
gotta keep the ink-wells filled and good pens on 
the desk. You’ll find them in that cupboard. 
Be sure you keep several on the desk. And when 
the mail comes, grab it quick and put it on the 
boss’s desk. Don’t do a thing to it, but put it on 
his desk. He don’t want anybody to monkey 
with his mail. And you’ll have to clean out these 
spittoons twice every day. About the middle of 
the morning and the middle of the afternoon you 


158 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


want to take them down-stairs to the wash-room 
and clean them out. See? The boss is awful 
particular about it.” 

“ Where is the wash-room? ” asked Willie. 

“ The elevator man will show you. I couldn’t 
exactly tell you how to find it.” 

Just then the Special Agent came into the 
room and sat down at his desk. The office boy 
promptly withdrew, and Willie followed. The 
office boy gave him some further directions and 
disappeared. Willie sat down at his desk in the 
anteroom. Almost at once the buzzer sounded, 
startling Willie so that he fairly jumped from 
his chair. He stepped to the Special Agent’s 
desk. 

“ Just sit down and answer the questions on 
this card,” said Mr. King. “ This is your ex¬ 
amination.” 

Willie was taken aback. “ My examination? ” 
he said. “ I don’t understand.” 

“ This is a Civil Service job you’ve got,” re¬ 
plied Mr. King. “You have to pass an examina¬ 
tion before I can regularly appoint you.” 

Willie looked a little alarmed. 

“ You needn’t worry,” smiled the Special 
Agent. “ Y r ou’ve been to high school and you 
will have no difficulty in passing the examina¬ 
tion.” 


UNDER A CLOUD 


159 


“ If this is a Civil Service post,” said Willie, 
“ how could you discharge that other office boy 
so suddenly? ” 

“ Oh! I got rid of him by promoting him.” 

“ By promoting him! ” gasped Willie. 

“ Sure. They need a boy in one of the de¬ 
partments here. He has to be a boy on the Civil 
Service list, who has had at least a little experi¬ 
ence. They always get their boys that way. The 
boys start in my office and move on up.” 

“ Then I suppose he’s glad he lost his place 
here.” 

“ In a way, perhaps. But he knows I moved 
him along to get rid of him. It really isn’t much 
of a promotion. He’ll get an extra dollar a 
week, maybe, but he’ll have to work to earn it. 
And he knows it. He didn’t do any work here 
at all. He was the worst loafer I ever had on 
the job. I’m hoping you will be an improve¬ 
ment.” 

“ I’m going to be,” said Willie, very quietly, 
and more to himself than to his new boss. 

He took the papers back to his desk and read 
them over. The questions were simple and he 
found that he could answer all of them readily. 
He drafted his answers, then went over each an¬ 
swer carefully to see whether he had misspelled 
any words, and whether he could improve the 


160 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


wording. When he was fully satisfied that he 
had his answers in as good shape as he could put 
them, he copied them neatly on fresh paper and 
handed the sheets to Mr. King. 

The latter went over the papers at once. Then 
he touched the buzzer. “ Your papers are satis¬ 
factory,” he said, “ and you are formally ap¬ 
pointed to the job. You are now in a Civil Serv¬ 
ice position and cannot be ousted from it except 
for misbehavior or incompetency.” 

“ Thank you, Mr. King,” said Willie. “ I’m 
glad to know it.” 

“ Very well. But don’t think that because you 
are a Civil Service employee you can loaf on the 
job. We don’t always promote boys when we 
get rid of them. Just remember that.” 

Willie went back to his desk and began to 
familiarize himself with his tasks. He made 
some mistakes at first. When a man inquired 
for Mr. King and Willie took the man into the 
inner office without first speaking to Mr. King, 
the Special Agent was provoked. The minute 
the man was gone, Mr. King rang his buzzer and 
reprimanded Willie. 

“ Don’t do that again,” he said sharply. “ Al¬ 
ways find out a caller’s name and business, and 
then find out whether it is convenient for us to 
see him. That applies to any of us here in the 


UNDER A CLOUD 


161 


office. We can’t be bothered by every Tom, 
Dick, and Harry who chooses to walk in.” 

“ Very well, sir,” said Willie. “ I’m sorry I 
made a mistake.” He was puzzled about the 
mistake, too, for he was certain the old office boy 
had told him his business was to conduct callers 
promptly to the Chief. “ Probably I misunder¬ 
stood him,” thought Willie. 

Presently the mail-carrier came with a great 
bunch of letters. Willie promptly took them to 
Mr. King. Hardly had he resumed his seat at 
his desk before the buzzer rang angrily. “ Sort 
this mail,” said Mr. King sharply. “ Deliver 
each letter to the man it’s addressed to. Be sure 
you slit the envelopes in my own mail. I can’t 
waste time opening envelopes.” 

Willie’s eyes popped open wide. “ Why, I 
thought,” he began, and then was silent. 

He sorted, slit, and delivered the mail as 
directed. But while he was doing it, he was try¬ 
ing to recall what the old office boy had told him. 
Willie was certain he had been told not to slit any 
letters. Could it be that he had misunderstood? 

Time went faster than he dreamed it could. 
Willie was busy every moment. Before he knew 
it, the morning was almost past. Willie thought 
of the spittoons. He leaped to his feet and 
darted into the Special Agent’s office. From 


162 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


either side of the big mahogany desk he lifted a 
shining brass cuspidor and started for the door. 

“ Hold on there,” roared the Chief. “ What 
in blazes are you doing with those spittoons? 
Don’t get so gay. There’ll be plenty of jobs 
worth doing, without wasting your time on cuspi¬ 
dors. What did you mean to do with them, any¬ 
way? ” 

Willie’s suspicions were becoming certainties, 
as he answered, “ Clean them, of course. Isn’t 
that part of my work? ” 

“ Certainly not,” exploded the Special Agent. 
“ That’s work for the scrub women. What in 
blazes do you think I would do while you were 
off somewhere cleaning spittoons, and half a hun¬ 
dred people were waiting outside my office? 
Where did you intend to wash those things, any¬ 
way? ” 

Willie stepped close to his Chief’s desk, and 
very quietly and distinctly said, “ In the wash¬ 
room—just where I was instructed to clean 
them.” 

“ Instructed! ” roared the Special Agent. 
“ Who instructed you to clean spittoons? ” 

“ I was told that was part of my work,” said 
Willie, dodging the question. “ I thought I had 

to clean them twice a day.” 

«. 7 

Despite his anger, the Special Agent burst into 


UNDER A CLOUD 


163 


laughter. “ I see somebody has been stringing 
you,” he said. “ And I see you don’t exactly like 
to be a telltale. All right. You needn’t name 
anybody. I am a good guesser. But tell me this. 
Why did you bring that man into my office 
without first announcing him? Did you under¬ 
stand that that also was a part of your duties? ” 

“ I thought so,” said Willie. 

“ And did you understand that you were to 
dump the mail on my desk the way you did? ” 
Willie grinned. “ I understood that it was 
important that it be done in just that way,” he 
said. 

“Well, I’ll be hanged!” exploded the Chief. 
“ This is really funny.” And all his bottled-up 
wrath effervesced in laughter. “ See here,” he 
went on. “ I guess the safest plan will be for 
you to inquire how to do things, each time you 
tackle a new task. Then you’ll get things 
straight.” 

“ I’ll do it, sir,” said Willie. “ And I’ll ask 
one question right away. I didn’t have time to 
get the pens ready for your desk. How many 
do you want, and how do you want them? ” 
“Pens!” cried the Special Agent. “That’s 
one thing I can’t abide on my desk. I use a 
fountain pen. I want my desk just as it is now 
—as clear as possible. I’ll attend to my mail, 


164 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


sort it, answer it, and get it out of the way. I 
want my desk clear—always.” 

“ Thank you,” said Willie, grinning. “ I think 
I understand a lot of things.” 

The Special Agent grinned back. “ I do, too,” 
he smiled. “ Now go back to your desk and— 
do the best you can under the circumstances.” 

Thereafter Willie got on excellently. In a 
few days’ time he felt quite at home in his job. 
His duties were simple enough. They were to 
do the ordinary tasks done by an ordinary office 
boy—to run errands, to distribute the incoming 
mail, to post outgoing mail, to wrap and unwrap 
packages, to look after the office supplies, such as 
pens and ink, and so on. In particular he was 
to receive vistors at the gate. 

All the remainder of his tasks were so trivial 
for a boy of Willie’s ability that Willie was in¬ 
clined at first greatly to underrate his job. For 
he did not at once comprehend the full impor¬ 
tance, either to himself or to his employer, of this 
matter of inquirers. Least of all did he see at 
first what bearing it might have on his own for¬ 
tunes. Naturally cheerful and well-mannered, 
Willie tried to be polite to every one who called. 
In that respect he was so different from his pred¬ 
ecessor that people who were familiar with the 
latter at once noticed the change. Willie’s first 



UNDER A CLOUD 


165 


understanding of what his conduct might mean 
to him came when he unwittingly overheard a 
conversation between his Chief and a stranger 
he had just conducted to the Special Agent’s 
office. 

“ Billy,” the visitor was saying, “ where did 
you get that new office boy? He’s a peach. He 
was as courteous to me as though I were his rich 
uncle. And he’s very intelligent. He under¬ 
stood at once why I was here. When he found 
you could not see me right away, he came out and 
expressed regret at the delay and handed me a 
magazine to read while I waited. Then he went 
on about his work just as quietly and industri- 
ouslv as could be. Wasn’t a bit fresh. Didn’t 
try to pick up a conversation with me or any¬ 
thing. But he kept his eye on you, and the in¬ 
stant you were free, he stepped to the doorway 
and waited for your orders. Then he brought 
me in to you. And he didn’t say, ‘ Mr. King will 
see you now.’ Instead he said, 4 Won’t you 
please step in. Mr. King is free now.’ He 
opened the gate and escorted me in himself, giv¬ 
ing my name to you as I entered. He’s a peach. 
I’m minded to steal him from you.” 

That was all Willie overheard. It was 
enough. It set him to thinking. Evidently the 
man appreciated the fact that Willie had tried 


166 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


to make him comfortable. If he had not over¬ 
heard this conversation, Willie would never have 
given a thought to the occurrence. He had not 
made any special effort to be nice to the man. 
It was natural for Willie to treat people kindly. 
He had been brought up that way. 

Now Willie reviewed the entire occurrence in 
his mind. He tried to remember every word and 
act of his. When he had thought it all over, he 
said to himself very soberly, “ Of course that man 
liked to be treated politely. I know how it makes 
a fellow feel when a fresh office boy barks out 
‘ Whatcha want? ’ as that guv did who held this 
job before me. Anybody would like to be treated 
politely. And it pleased him that I handed him 
a magazine. I don’t know why I did that. Just 
happened to, I guess. But he thought I was 
trying to make him comfortable. I’ll remember 
that. If it makes a man feel like giving a fellow 
a job in his own office, it’s a trick worth remem¬ 
bering. In future I’ll make a real effort to make 
everybody comfortable. Mr. King said he didn’t 
always promote boys when he got rid of them, 
and some day something might happen and I’d 
be glad of a chance at another job.” 

Poor Willie! Much sooner than he would 
have believed possible, he was wondering very 
seriously if he could find another job. 


UNDER A CLOUD 


167 


He thought the matter over a bit further and 
a new idea came to him. “ Why, I believe that’s 
one of the best ways to keep the job I’ve already 
got,” muttered Willie. “ I could see that that 
man went into Mr. King’s office feeling mighty 
good about something, though I never dreamed 
I had anything to do with it. Mr. King can put 
through a whole lot more work in an hour if he 
deals with people that feel good than he could if 
he had to talk to a lot of soreheads. That’s a 
cinch. Why, if I could keep callers all jollied 
up so they feel good-natured, it ought to make 
things easier for Mr. King.” 

A minute later Willie chuckled. “ That’s one 
thing I tumbled to, myself,” he muttered, “ with¬ 
out being shown by my predecessor.” Then he 
laughed good-naturedly at the recollection of the 
spittoons he had tried to clean. “ I sure was a 
greeny,” he said. “ But the affair didn’t hurt me 
a bit. So I have no call to feel sore at the other 
office boy. I’ll just forget him.” 

That was easier to sav than to do, however, for 
everv day or so Willie met the fellow somewhere. 
Always the older lad tried to bully Willie. If 
they met in a corridor, he would walk in the mid- 
die of the way and roughly crowd Willie to one 
side. He nicknamed Willie Peanut. If there 
was no one around to hear him, he called Willie 


168 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


names and swore at him. So far, Willie had 
never met the fellow outside of the Custom¬ 
house. He had no doubt that the boy would han¬ 
dle him roughly if they did meet on the street, for 
Smith—that was the bully’s name, Tom Smith— 
had threatened him with a good whipping the 
first time he caught him alone. So Willie re¬ 
solved to keep his eyes open when he was on the 
street. 

It really was not difficult to avoid the bully, 
however, for there was slight chance of their 
meeting except in the Custom-house. The Smith 
boy lived up-town and ducked into the subway 
the minute the clock struck five. Willie, on the 
other hand, came to work early and left late. Pie 
had found a boarding-house very near at hand. 
It was close to the Armenian quarter, and was 
not five minutes’ walk from the Custom-house. 
It was not at all the sort of home he would want 
to live in permanently, but it would answer very 
well for the present. An Irish tugboat man and 
his wife named McMichael had a room to rent, 
and Willie engaged it. The Irishman and his 
wife were rough, but veiy kind-hearted, and they 
were honest. The woman had lost her only son, 
and she took a great liking to Willie. So he 
fortunately had a place that was clean and con¬ 
venient, and he received the best of treatment. 




UNDER A CLOUD 


169 


It puzzled Willie, too, to know how he was go¬ 
ing to install his wireless. The house in which he 
lived was close to the elevated railway. Willie 
knew that the powerful electric currents in the 
third rail would affect his communication badly. 
Furthermore, high buildings arose on every hand. 
So far as wireless communication was concerned, 
Willie was like a man down in a well. He was 
walled in on all sides. Besides, there was no 
really good place to string up an aerial. So 
Willie postponed the installation of his wireless 
system. 

The question was settled for him, however, in 
a way that was unexpected to Willie. Although 
Uncle Sam had agents created expressly to pre¬ 
vent infractions of the prohibition laws, the Spe¬ 
cial Agent of the Treasury was also charged with 
the duty of preventing the unlawful entry of 
liquor into the country. 

There had always been more or less liquor 
smuggling going on, but since the prohibition 
amendment became effective, the smuggling of 
liquor had assumed the proportions of a great 
industry. Liquor manufacturers in countries 
where the liquor traffic was not forbidden, were 
shipping vast quantities of wet goods to America, 
because of the high prices that could be obtained 
for the forbidden products. 


170 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Whole fleets of whiskey-laden vessels were 
constantly sailing from Bermuda and other for¬ 
eign West Indian ports, and anchoring in the 
ocean just outside the three-mile limit, where 
Uncle Sam’s jurisdiction ceases. Small boats by 
the score, equipped with powerful motors and 
manned by desperate crews, were smuggling the 
stuff ashore in the dark. The “ dry Navy ” com¬ 
posed of former submarine chasers, and the Cus¬ 
toms Department’s own sea-going force of four 
boats were working hard to prevent the landing 
of these rum ships and to seize the smuggled 
liquor. 

Most of these patrol craft were equipped with 
wireless, and the Special Agent had to issue his 
orders at long distance. He lacked a wireless 
outfit in his own office, however, and had to use 
a government wireless in another part of the city. 
He telephoned his messages to the operator there. 
This would have been satisfactory enough if the 
operator had not been so busy with other work 
that sometimes the Special Agent’s messages 
were held up for hours before the operator could 
send them. 

After an especially provoking delay one day, 
Mr. King called to his office boy. “ Willie,” he 
said, “ are you competent to communicate with 
my boats by wireless? ” 


UNDER A CLOUD 


171 


“ Yes, sir,” replied Willie. “ I can talk to 
them if you wish.” 

“ Well, we don’t have any wireless in this of¬ 
fice, and I have no appropriation to buy any. 
But I am tired of all this delay in sending orders. 
What would an outfit cost? If it doesn’t set me 
back too much, I’ll be hanged if I don’t buy an 
outfit myself.” 

“ If you could get me a good battery,” said 
Willie, eagerly, “ you could use my set. I’ve got 
everything we need except a strong battery.” 

“ What would that cost? ” 

“ Maybe it wouldn’t cost anything. We might 
be able to use the battery from an old motor- 
truck. You’ve got a lot of them in the depart¬ 
ment.” 

“ That’s a fact. And we likely have some ex¬ 
tra batteries. We could use one of them, 
couldn’t we? ” 

“ Sure,” said Willie. “ It won’t cost a cent, 
if you can get a battery. I’ll rig up the outfit 
and run it for you.” 

“ Then I’ll do it. But there’s one thing we 
want understood. If we put in this outfit, you 
mustn’t neglect your work to be fooling with 
your wireless. You can use it before and after 
office hours, and during your hour off at noon, 
as much as you like. But during business hours 


172 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


you’re not to touch it unless you are handling 
messages for me.” 

“ That’s agreed to,” replied Willie. 

“ Then I’ll see what we can do about the bat¬ 
tery. And by the way, please get me a fresh 
supply of stationery from that cupboard in the 
corner. Just fill this compartment in my 
drawer.” And the Chief tossed his bunch of keys 
to Willie. 

While Willie was trying to find the key that 
fitted the cupboard, Mr. King turned to his tele¬ 
phone and called up the motor equipment bureau. 
Then he stepped out of the room. 

Willie got the cupboard open, filled his su¬ 
perior’s desk drawer with stationery, and locked 
the cupboard. He laid the keys on Mr. King’s 
desk. Then he picked them up and put them in 
his pocket. “ Somebody might take them,” said 
Willie to himself, “ or they might be lost,” 

Before Mr. King returned to his desk, a pow¬ 
erful, highly charged battery was delivered at the 
office door. Willie receipted for it. Just then 
Mr. King returned. 

“ Get your outfit and rig it up as quick as you 
can,” he said. 

Willie slipped over to his boarding-house to 
get his suit case. Mrs. McMichael was not at 
home and Willie could not get in the house. He 


\ 


173 


UNDER A CLOUD 

thought she might be visiting some of the neigh¬ 
bors and he walked about the neighborhood look¬ 
ing for her. After a time she came back. Willie 
was waiting on the step. He got his suit case 
and hurried back to the office. He realized that 
he had been gone quite a while. 

“I’ll work all the faster to make up for it,” 
thought Willie. 

As he entered the office, he thought of Mr. 
King’s keys and handed them to their owner. 
Then he got busy with his wireless set. Before 
night he had it installed, with a long, single-wire 
aerial on the roof, and his lead-in wire running to 
an inner room not visible from the Special 
Agent’s office. Willie tested the outfit and 
found it worked satisfactorily, but he did not re¬ 
main after office hours to try it further. In¬ 
stead, he hustled out to buy a few little things he 
needed to improve his outfit—a new detector, 
some additional wire, and a few other trifles. 

Very early next morning he was on hand, and 
he had all his adjustments made before the time 
came for Willie to be at his desk. The instant 
the clock struck twelve he rushed out to luncheon, 
got a sandwich and a cup of coffee, and hur ried 
back to use his wireless. He glanced into the 
Special Agent’s room. Mr. King was still at his 
desk. His back was turned and he did not see 


174 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Willie. The clock showed that Willie had been 
gone only fifteen minutes. 

“ I’ll have forty-five minutes,” thought Willie. 
“ Maybe I can get in touch with some of the fel¬ 
lows at home. I’m sure the battery will carry 
far enough, and some of the boys might be listen¬ 
ing in during the noon hour, the way we used to 
do.” 

He went into the inner room, closed the door, 
and for three-quarters of an hour tried to call his 
friends at Central City. Over and over again he 
flashed out the signals CBWC—CBWC— 
CBWC—de CBM—CBM—CBM. But he 
flashed it in vain. No answering signal came to 
him. 

At one o’clock he went to his desk. Mr. 
Somers, the head clerk, was just entering the 
office. One by one, the other assistants came in. 
Then the Special Agent returned to his desk. A 
few moments later the buzzer rang briskly. 
Willie sprang to answer. 

“ Send Mr. Somers here,” said the Special 
Agent so sharply that Willie was surprised. He 
had never heard his boss use that tone before. 

Mr. Somers came at the call. “ Shut the 
door,” he heard Mr. King say, as Mr. Somers 
entered the inner office. A few moments later 
Mr. Somers came out, looking grave. 




UNDER A CLOUD 


175 


Again the buzzer sounded. “ Send Mr. Raw- 
ley,” ordered the Treasury Agent. 

Mr. Rawley came and was succeeded by Mr. 
Finn. Others followed him. Presently every 
employee in the Special Agent’s office had been 
closeted with Mr. King. Willie wondered what 
was afoot. Once more the buzzer rang. Willie 
promptly answered the summons. 

“ What time did you leave this office to get 
your luncheon?” asked Mr. King sharply. 

“ Twelve o’clock exactly,” said Willie. 

“ When did you get back? ” 

“ Twelve-fifteen, exactly.” 

“Was anybody in the office when you re¬ 
turned? ” 

“ I did not see a soul, sir, except yourself.” 

“ What did you do between twelve-fifteen and 
one o’clock? ” 

“ I was in the wireless room during every mo¬ 
ment.” 

“ Can you prove it? ” 

“ I—I—I don’t know, sir. Nobody saw me go 
in and nobody saw me come out. There was no¬ 
body in the office when I got hack except your¬ 
self. I don’t think you saw me, sir.” 

“No, I didn’t.” 

“ And I returned to my desk just as Mr. 
Somers came in. He was the first man to get 




176 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


back from luncheon. I don’t see how I can prove 
I was in the wireless room during that time. 
Why do you ask if I can? ” 

“ Because,” said the Special Agent slowly, 
while his eyes seemed to bore clear through 
Willie, “ I was the last person apparently to 
leave this office for luncheon. You were the only 
person in the place during the noon hour. Dur¬ 
ing that hour a package of very important papers 
was taken from my desk.” 


CHAPTER X 


THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER 

F OR a moment Willie was almost stunned. 

He stood as motionless as a statue. His 
Chief was studying his face with searching gaze. 
Willie endured the examination without flinch¬ 
ing. Not for a second did he turn away from the 
penetrating look. Then he found his voice. 

“ Do you accuse me of taking the papers? ” he 
demanded. 

“ I haven’t accused you of anything,” said the 
Chief. “ I have merelv stated the facts. Cir- 
cumstances point to you. It’s up to you to prove 
that you did not touch those papers.” 

“ Nothing of the sort,” Willie retorted indig¬ 
nantly. “ If you want to make me out a thief, 
it’s up to you to prove I did take them. It’s the 
law in this land that a man is innocent until he 
is proved guilty.” 

The Chief seemed to be weighing Willie’s 
words, as though to determine whether Willie 
was making a bold bluff or voicing a natural in¬ 
dignation. If he came to any conclusion, he did 

177 


178 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


not mention it. Instead, he went on, “ What you 
say is true, in a general way. But if you really 
are honest, you will be eager to prove your inno¬ 


cence. 

“ Of course I am eager to prove my inno¬ 
cence,” cried Willie. “ And I shall not rest day 
or night until the truth is known. But it isn’t 
fair to think I’m the thief, merely because I hap¬ 
pened to be in the building when the papers were 
stolen. And anyway, was it fair for you to leave 
the papers where they could be taken, and not 
notify me so I could be on the watch? ” 

“ The papers were not left where they could 
be easily taken. They were locked in my desk.” 

“ Then you should have been careful to keep 
your keys in your pocket,” said Willie. 

“ The keys were in my pocket, all right. 
Whoever opened the drawer had a duplicate 
key.” And again the Chief looked hard at 
Willie. 

“ Then I don’t see why you should suspect 
me,” said Willie. “ I certainly have no duplicate 


keys.” 

“ Perhaps not,” continued the Special Agent, 
looking harder than ever at Willie. “ But I lent 
you my keys yesterday to open that cupboard in 
the corner. You had the keys in your pocket 
when you went to your boarding-place to get 


THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER 179 

your wireless outfit. What was there to prevent 
you from having a duplicate key made while you 
were away? You were gone a long time.” 

Poor Willie! He was almost overwhelmed. 
Circumstances certainly did point to him. He 
knew it was useless to protest his innocence. He 
saw now that what he must do was to prove it. 

“ Mr. King! ” he cried, as soon as he could get 
command of himself. “ I’ll have to admit that 
circumstances are badly against me. But I am 
absolutely innocent. I shall not rest until this 
matter is cleared up. I want you to search me 
this instant, and my desk, and the wireless room.” 

“ Then take off your coat and give it to me.” 

Willie pulled off his coat. Mr. King examined 
it thoroughly, then carefully ran his hands over 
Willie. Next he searched Willie’s desk and 
finally the wireless room. He found no trace of 
his missing papers. 

“See!” cried Willie jubilantly. “I do not 
have them.” 

“ That doesn’t prove you didn’t take them.” 

“Aren’t you going to give me a fair deal?” 
cried Willie passionately. 

“ Of course I’ll give you a square deal. I’ll 
prove that by sending for a Secret Service man 
to investigate the matter at once.” Again he 
looked hard at Willie, but Willie never flinched. 


180 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ I’ll be very clad if you will,” he said. “ If 
anybody can find out the truth, the Secret Serv¬ 
ice men can.” 

Within a short time a Secret Service operative 
arrived. Willie ushered him into Mr. King’s 
office and closed the door. If ever in his life he 
wanted to be an eavesdropper, it was now. He 
resolutely fought down the idea and went back 
to his desk. But it was hard to keep his mind on 
his work. 

After a time the Secret Service man came out 
of Mr. King’s office and began to question 
Willie. He asked him about every move he had 
made during the dinner hour, and Willie, com¬ 
prehending his purpose, tried to account for 
every second. He explained that he had left the 
office on the very stroke of twelve, in order to 
get a quick bite so he could use his wireless dur¬ 
ing his free time. 

“ I ran over to the Childs’ restaurant,” said 
Willie, “ and got a sandwich and a cup of coffee.” 

“ Can you prove it? ” demanded the Secret 
Service man. 

“ I think so. I can pick out the waitress who 
brought me the food.” 

“ Then do it,” said the detective. 

Willie asked Mr. King if he might step out 
with the detective. “ Certainly,” replied the 


THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER 


181 


Chief. “ Ask one of the clerks to keep his eye 
on the door.” 

Willie did so and joined the Secret Service 
man. The restaurant was just across Bowling 
Green, on the east side of Broadway. The two 
descended in the elevator, walked across the little 
park, and entering the restaurant, stood near the 
door. Willie watched the waitresses come and 
go, for there were still some people eating. Pres¬ 
ently Willie touched the detective’s arm. 
“ That’s the girl,” he said, and he pointed to a 
black-haired waitress just coming from the 
kitchen with a tray of food. 

The detective walked over to her table, fol¬ 
lowed by Willie. When she had distributed her 
food, the detective spoke to her quietly. “ Did 
you ever see this lad before? ” he asked. 

The waitress looked keenly at Willie. “ Yes,” 
she said. “ He’s been in here several times.” 

“ When did vou see him last? ” 

“ At dinner-time.” 

“ Do you remember what he had to eat? ”• 

“ I’m not sure, but I think he had coffee and a 
sandwich.” 

“ How are you able to recall him? ” 

The girl hesitated. “ Maybe it’s because he’s 
so little, but I guess it’s because he’s so polite. 
Anyway, he’s different from most of the boys 


182 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


that come in here, and I like him. He often eats 
at my table.” 

“ I’m obliged to you,” said the Secret Service 
man, and the two investigators went out. 

“ So far so good,” said the Secret Service man. 
“ Now let’s return to your office.” They walked 
back to the Custom-house. “ How do you know 
it was twelve-fifteen when you got back? ” asked 
the detective. 

“ I looked at the clock, to see how long I could 
stay in the wireless room.” 

“Was anybody in the office then? ” 

“ Mr. King was. He sat at his desk, but his 
back was toward me and he was busy so that I 
am sure he did not notice me.” 

“ What did you do next? ” 

“ I went directlv into the wireless room.” 

“ Let’s take a look at it.” 

They passed through one or two of the office 
rooms and then into a small inner room that had 
been made for a sort of storeroom, but was little 
used for any purpose. The Secret Service man 
looked around the room. 

“ What did you do after you came here? ” he 
demanded. 

“ I shut the door, so I would not be inter¬ 
rupted. Then I sat down at my instrument and 
called my old chums at home.” 


THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER 


183 


“ How long did you call them? ” 

“ I can’t say exactly. I called and called at 
frequent intervals, right up to the time I went 
back to the office. When I reached my desk, it 
was exactly one o’clock.” 

“ Can you prove you were calling all that 
time? ” 

“ I’m afraid I can’t. I didn’t get a single an¬ 
swer. If I could find any other operator who 
heard me, I might be able to. But I don’t be¬ 
lieve there’s much chance that I could find such a 
person.” 

“ Why not? There are lots of operators talk¬ 
ing and listening in all the time.” 

“ Certainly. But mostly they use longer wave¬ 
lengths than I did. You know we amateur 
operators are limited to a low wave-length. 
There are hundreds of operators, no doubt, who 
were near enough to have heard me, but mostly 
they work in longer wave-lengths.” 

The detective frowned. “ You don’t seem 
very eager to find out,” he said. 

“ On the contrary, I’d give anything I own to 
find another operator who had a complete record 
of my calls. But I realize that probably no such 
record exists, either on paper or in some opera¬ 
tor’s memory. You would hardly expect any¬ 
body to listen for three-quarters of an hour to a 


184 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


strange call or to make a note of hearing such 
a call. But just the same I’m going to begin a 
search for an operator who did hear me. I’ll get 
a list of stations within talking distance, and I’ll 
comb that list until I find somebody who heard 
my call. But it will be a big job and it will take 
me a long time. You know I can’t work very 
late in the evening, for I have to leave the build¬ 
ing when it closes for the night.” 

“ Very well,” said the Secret Sendee man. “ I 
advise vou to make everv effort you can. We 
have no proof whatever that you were in the 
wireless room at all during the noon hour. There 
is only your word for it.” 

Poor Willie! The further matters went, the 
worse it seemed for him. He didn’t know where 
to turn for help or counsel. Roy’s ship had sailed 
during the forenoon, taking the purser and Roy 
with it. They were the only people in all this 
great city that Willie felt were really his friends. 
He didn’t know how they could help him, even 
if he could see them. But it would at least re¬ 
lieve his mind if he could talk the matter over 
with some one who was friendly. Then Willie 
thought of Reynolds, of the Morro Castle . He 
knew that he had sailed away two or three hours 
behind Roy, so he couldn’t talk with him. The 
only other person Willie could think of who 


THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER 


185 


might have a friendly interest in him was Sheri¬ 
dan. At the thought of Sheridan, Willie felt 
heartened. He would see the big Secret Service 
man at the first opportunity. Also he would get 
the list of radio stations and begin immediately 
to search for an operator who had heard his calls. 
And he would do some detective work on his own 
account. If ever there was occasion for him to 
make use of what detective powers he had, now 
was the time. The stake was the biggest he could 
ever work for. It was his own reputation. 

The moment Willie was free that afternoon, 
he hurried to the Secret Service office and there 
he found Sheridan. He told him of the diffi¬ 
culty he was in. 

“ Do you think I would steal those papers? ” 
he asked, after telling the Secret Service man his 
story. 

“ No, I don’t. But my belief in you won’t help 
you any. What we want to do is to find out who 
did take the papers. Now tell me everything 
that has occurred in that office since you started 
to work there.” 

Willie reviewed in detail the story of his serv¬ 
ices to date, beginning with the first morning he 
went to work. He did not even neglect to tell 
Sheridan how Tom Smith had bullied him and 
threatened him, or how he, Willie, had made the 


186 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


ridiculous mistakes about the spittoons and other 
things, though evidently these things could have 
no possible bearing on the case. Yet he tried not 
to omit even the smallest details. 

“ That’s a good, clear statement,” commented 
Sheridan, when Willie had finished his story. “ I 
have confidence in your innocence, but I’ll tell 
you frankly that things look bad for you. I hope 
the man on the case will get to the bottom of it.” 

Willie stepped back aghast. “ Aren’t you go¬ 
ing to make an investigation yourself? ” he cried. 

“It is not for me to decide what I shall in¬ 
vestigate,” replied the Secret Service man. 
“ That’s up to the Chief. Besides, there’s a man 
already detailed to the case. I wouldn’t like to 
butt into another man’s job.” 

“ Then I’ll appeal to the Chief,” said Willie 
desperately. “ The man that’s on the job be¬ 
lieves I’m the thief and is trying hard to fasten 
the crime on me.” 

“Hold on! Hold on!” said Sheridan. 

“ United States Secret Service men don’t try to 

*/ 

fasten crimes on any one.” 

“ I beg your pardon,” said Willie. “ But I 
can’t help feeling indignant at the way he ques¬ 
tioned me.” 

“ That questioning may mean your salvation, 
young man. If you are innocent, you want the 


THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER 187 

truth disclosed. And the only way we can get 
at the truth is to follow out every clue that pre¬ 
sents. He naturally started with you, because 
that seemed the obvious clue to follow. But it 
doesn’t follow that he thinks you guilty or that 
he is trying to prove you took the papers. If it 
had been my lot to make this investigation, I 
should doubtless have done just what he did. 
Now don’t queer your case with the Chief by 
making any such charges.” 

“ I’ll think twice before I speak once,” said 
Willie. “ Will you ask the Chief if he will see 
me?” 

“ Yes, but it won’t do you any good. He’s 
busy.” 

The Chief, however, was willing to see Willie. 
How much Sheridan had to do with making that 
possible, he did not say. But he came back, smil¬ 
ing, and told Willie to step into the Chief’s 
office. 

“ Hello, youngster,” said the Chief cordially. 
“ What brings you back to the Secret Service? 
Lost your job at the Custom-house already? ” 

“ No, sir,” said Willie, “ but it looks as though 
I’m in a fair way to do so.” And he told the 
Chief all about his difficulties. He told him so 
heart-brokenly and fervently, moreover, that the 
Chief was touched. 


188 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ A fellow who appeals to the Secret Service 
for help when he’s accused of wrong,” said the 
Chief, “ isn’t very likely to be guilty, is he? ” 

“ Thank vou,” said Willie. “ That’s the first 
encouraging word anybody has said to me since 
this thing happened. I am not guilty, and all I 
ask is to have Mr. Sheridan investigate the mat¬ 
ter and show who is.” 

“ You may be very sure we shall go into the 
matter thoroughly,” replied the Chief. “ It is a 
serious business. But I cannot promise to put 
any particular man on the investigation. You 
may be sure, however, that you will have a fair 
deal and that we will get to the bottom of the 
affair.” 

Willie went away, feeling that his effort had 
been in vain. It was, however, more fruitful 
than he ever dreamed it would be. The first Se¬ 
cret Service operative questioned others besides 
Willie, and at once everybody in the office knew 
him for what he was. Thereafter his usefulness 
was past. The Chief recalled him and sent a sec¬ 
ond operative: and the new man was Sheridan. 
But no one knew he was a Secret Service man. 
He came into the building as a cleaner and 
porter; and even Willie would not have known 
him had he seen him. For a long time he made 
no more headway than did Willie, who was in- 


THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER 


189 


dustriously communicating, day after day, with 
wireless operators, in a quest for some one who 
had heard his signals on the day the papers were 
stolen from the Special Agent’s desk. But ap¬ 
parently the quest was vain. Meanwhile Willie 
did his work with absolute fidelity, putting into 
it every bit of mind and energy he possessed. 
But he could see that he was watched on all sides, 
and that belief in his guilt did not lessen as time 
passed. 


CHAPTER XI 


WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY 

B UT though Willie made no headway in his 
investigation, he was making splendid prog¬ 
ress with his other work. He was on his mettle 
now. He had but one thought, night and day. 
That was to prove his worth. That meant, first, 
to prove his innocence; and second, to prove his 
ability. Time might or might not show who 
really took the papers. Willie, seemingly, could 
do nothing to clarify the situation. But to attain 
his other ends, he could do everything. 

He began to study his various tasks, to see if 
there were better or more efficient ways of doing 
them. He tried harder and harder to be efficient 
at the gate, to keep things running smoothly, to 
do all he could to help forward the business of 
the office. Very quickly he learned where all the 
various supplies were. He soon knew the ins 
and outs of the entire place. He knew all the 
offices in the huge building, and could tell off¬ 
hand who were in charge of them. 

190 


WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY 


191 


And while he thus became more useful, he was 
absorbing information that was to make him 
more useful still. Day after day, the operatives 
or special agents who worked with the customs 
inspectors to prevent smuggling, came in and 
discussed their cases. Willie often heard much 
that they said. So he came to know the names 
of persons who had tried to smuggle in goods, 
the methods they resorted to, and the artifices 
employed to trap them. 

It was extremely fortunate for Willie that 
there was no other boy in the office. It has been 
said that one boy is worth half as much as a man, 
while two boys are worth nothing at all. It might 
have been somewhat that way with Willie, had 
he had a companion anywhere near his own age, 
for he was full of fun and mischief. But every 
one else in the office had outgrown his puppy 
days. Even so, Willie might have indulged in 
some harmless fun at intervals, had not the 
Chief’s papers been stolen. After Willie once 
found that the finger of suspicion pointed to him, 
he lost much of his natural buoyancy of spirit. 
He was too sick at heart even to want to play. 
So he settled down sedately, like an elderly gen¬ 
tleman, to his work. Thus he gained fast in 
knowledge and ability, and without realizing it, 
turned a disadvantage into an advantage. 


192 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


It was impossible, however, to repress for very 
long a nature so buoyant and cheerful as Willie’s. 
Day followed day. And though the days did not 
lift the burden of suspicion from Willie, neither 
did they add to it. Slowly but surely Willie re¬ 
turned to his normal, cheerful frame of mind. 

Once this change had come, Willie’s natural 
curiosity about life asserted itself. In that re¬ 
spect, Willie was like a fox-terrier, now nosing 
this thing and now that, and always on the alert. 
Truly he was in a favorable place for one curious 
about life. All the world was spread out before 
him, in tabloid form. He had only to search, and 
he would find near at hand peoples from the 
farthest corners of the earth. He had only to 
look, and he would see how men lived in far 
countries, what they ate and drank and how they 
worked and what thev did to amuse themselves. 
And all these things Willie was keen enough to 
learn. So Willie’s return to better spirits fired 
his curiosity afresh; and his curiosity in turn re¬ 
newed his spirits. Before he knew it, Willie was 
very much like the old Willie Roy had known 
back home—a likable, dependable, whole-souled, 
jolly lad, but with an unusual amount of sense 
and understanding. 

Once his desire to see was whetted again, 
Willie turned eagerly to the pleasant task of get- 


WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY 193 

* 

ting better acquainted with New York. To be 
sure, he already knew the town’s geography by 
heart. ITe could tell an inquirer in an instant 
where Albany Street or Minetta Lane or Coen- 
ties Slip was located. He had learned the names 
and locations on a map during the search for the 
secret wireless. Yet mostly these places were 
still but names to him. When he said Mulberry 
Street, he did not think of tall brick tenements 
strung from fire-escape to fire-escape with red 
peppers, or of gaudy street festivals, or of the 
teeming population of swarthy Italians that lived 
in these brick tenements. And when he spoke of 
Allen Street, he had no vision of a dark, reeking 
thoroughfare, -with the elevated railway trains 
thundering overhead and shutting out the sun¬ 
light, the garbage cans overflowing on the side¬ 
walks, the glittering shops of the brass merchants, 
and the chattering swarms of Hebrews that filled 
the street. Now, Willie felt, the time had come 
for him to know the places themselves, the to¬ 
pography, the life that was lived in these places. 

But he was sadly restricted in his efforts. 
Only after office hours had he opportunity to do 
any sightseeing. Being at the very end of Man¬ 
hattan Island, it was necessary for him to ride 
if he meant to go any distance. Car fares cost 
money. And the small salary Willie was getting 


194 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


hardly more than sufficed to provide him with 
food and shelter. He had to be very careful of 
his pennies. In some respects that was fortunate 
for Willie. It encouraged, and almost necessi¬ 
tated, his seeing what lay near at hand and could 
be seen quickly and at no cost. So it came about 
that Willie began to make a systematic survey 
of what is probably the most interesting part of 
old New York—the region from Canal Street to 
the Battery. 

Naturally Willie wanted to see more of the 
Armenians and the quarter in which they lived. 
He had never forgotten the occurrences that 
marked his first visit, nor had he ceased to won¬ 
der at those occurrences. And as he boarded 
right around the corner from the district, he was 
much to be seen in this odd little nook of lower 
Manhattan. He had already found the food 
toothsome and cheap; and more and more he ate 
in these Oriental cafes. Quite as naturally he 
began to visit the shops; but as he had little to 
spend, the few purchases he did make were of 
the most inexpensive sorts. 

He never tired, however, of looking at the curi¬ 
ous goods offered for sale. There were dried figs, 
packed in the most curious, bowl-shaped baskets 
woven of straw or grass; and dried dates, put up 
in various odd packages; and curious Turkish 



WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY 


195 


candies and pastries, unlike anything Willie had 
ever seen; and Turkish tobaccos, and pistachio- 
nuts, which Willie had never seen before, and 
which he promptly sampled. And Willie was 
amused at one ferret-eyed shopman’s embarrass¬ 
ment, when, in pouring the nuts out of a can for 
Willie, he found a little white handkerchief in 
the can, that doubtless one of the man’s numerous 
babies had hidden away there. For the can was 
kept down low, behind the counter. And the 
trinkets were so interesting—the rings and brace¬ 
lets and earrings and necklaces of semi-precious 
stones and even of cheap metals like copper and 
brass. 

But what took Willie’s eye especially was the 
lace work. Again and again he had seen the 
Armenian women on the sidewalks and doorsteps 
plying their needles and making these beautiful 
pieces. There were wonderful shawls edged with 
lace, and lace handkerchiefs, and lace scarfs, and 
marvelous table-cloths, and no end of laces for 
edging waists and skirts and pillows, and other 
beautiful things. Most of all Willie looked with 
envious eves on the lace collars. He wanted one 
for his mother. Often she wore simple lace col¬ 
lars, and Willie thought she never was so beau¬ 
tiful as when she wore a dark dress with a lace 
collar to frame her face. He meant to buy one 



196 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


of these collars just as soon as he could save the 
necessary amount of money. It really required 
no great sum, Willie found, to buy many of these 
articles. But he did not yet have even that little. 

Willie would have paid small heed to the rela¬ 
tive price of these Oriental offerings, and indeed 
he would hardly have known the prices were very 
different from prices elsewhere for similar goods, 
had it not been for an incident that occurred one 
day. Mr. King, in hunting through one of his 
pockets, came upon a ‘neglected and forgotten 
letter. It was an announcement of the marriage 
of an old friend. 

“ By George! ” said the Special Agent, gazing 
ruefully at the recovered announcement. “ I for¬ 
got about that. I meant to send Frank some lit¬ 
tle token. I mustn’t wait another minute.” Then 
he looked at his engagement calendar, and sank 
back in his seat. He could not possibly get away 
that day to buy anything. 

“ Willie,” called the Treasury Agent through 
the open door, “ I wish you’d do an errand for 
me.” 

“ I’ll be glad to,” said Willie, stepping to Mr. 
King’s desk. 

“ Here’s a ten-dollar bill, Willie. Jump into 
the subway and run up to Wanamaker’s. Get 
me a dozen nice napkins. If you can get some 


WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY 


197 


with embroidered edges for that price, I’d like 
them. If you can’t, get some plain ones. But 
they must be of good quality and a pretty pat¬ 
tern.” 

“ I’d be glad to do the errand, Mr. King, but 
are you sure you would like what I select? ” 

“ Oh! You can pick a pretty pattern as well 
as anybody, and besides, if I don’t like your 
choice, I can exchange the napkins for others.” 

Willie hurried away and reached the store in 
no time. He had no difficulty in finding plenty 
of beautiful napkins, but the prices were appal¬ 
ling. The embroidered ones were simply out of 
his reach. To get even the plain ones of good 
size and best quality required most of his ten- 
dollar bill. He got the best bargain he could and 
hurried back to his employer. 

“ There were plenty of fine embroidered nap¬ 
kins, Mr. King,” said Willie, “ but ten dollars 
wouldn’t touch them. These are very fine nap¬ 
kins, but they are plain. Here’s your change.” 

Mr. King unwrapped the napkins, looked at 
the purchase slip, and then counted the change 
Willie had given him. He found it correct. 

“ Here’s fifty cents for you, Willie,” he said, 
handing out a half dollar. “ And I’m obliged to 
you.” 

Willie laid the half dollar on the desk. “ I’ve 


198 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


been paid once for my time,” he said. “ I cannot 
take the money. But I thank you.” 

Mr. King gave Willie a sharp look. He saw 
nothing but sincerity in the lad’s face. “ Very 
well,” he remarked. “ You are at least entitled 
to car fare. All our agents have their expenses 
paid when on duty.” And he handed a dime to 
Willie. 

“ Thank you,” said Willie, as he pocketed the 
money. 

“ Now we’ll see what sort of taste you have,” 
said Mr. King, as he spread the linen out on his 
desk. 

“ Well,” he said, “ that suits me first-rate and 
it would suit Frank. But whether it will suit 
Frank’s wife or not I don’t know. She might 
not like them because they are not fancy.” 

“ I’m sorry I couldn’t get the embroidered 
ones,” said Willie. “ Thev were almost double 
the price of the plain napkins. And the price of 
the plain ones was a fright.” 

“ Yes, I knew they would come high. These 
are imported goods, and the duty is something 
like eighty or ninety per cent, ad valorem” 

“ What does that mean? ” inquired Willie. 

“ Simply this. The import duty is eighty or 
ninety per cent, of the original value of the goods. 
If an article is worth ten dollars, say, and the im- 


WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY 


199 


port duty is eighty per cent., the importer would 
have to pay a tax of eighty per cent, of ten dol¬ 
lars, or eight dollars, to get the stuff in. So he 
would have to have eighteen dollars merely to 
cover the purchase price and the revenue tax.” 

“Whew!” whistled Willie. “Are import 
duties as high as that? ” 

“ No, not all of them. Some are very low. It 
just depends. Articles of necessity, like food, 
pay very little duty and often none at all. But 
articles of luxury, like silks, laces, linens, and so 
on, pay very heavy duties. It takes a pile of 
money to run this government. If everybody 
was taxed directly, and had to pay in dollars and 
cents, right out of his pocket, there would be a 
tremendous howl. So Uncle Sam gets part of 
his money through indirect taxes, like import 
duties. That places the tax burden where it can 
best be borne, too, for poor people cannot afford 
many luxuries. The well-to-do pay a great deal, 
merely for the privilege of wearing fine clothes 
and having beautiful objects in their houses.” 

Just then the arrival of a caller at the gate cut 
short the conversation, and Willie thought no 
more about the matter until the next time he saw 
an Armenian woman making lace on a doorstep. 

“ I understand now why these Armenian 
things are so cheap,” thought Willie. “ The 


200 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


women make them here and there is no duty to 
pay on them.” 

The woman who was knitting saw Willie look¬ 
ing at her laces. “ Only two dolla,” she said, 
holding out a beautiful piece of lace for Willie’s 
inspection. “ Cheap.” 

“ It sure is,” said Willie. An idea came to 
him. “ How long did it take you to make this? ” 
he inquired. 

“ Maybe one week,” said the woman. “ Don’t 
know exactly.” 

Willie handed the woman back her laces, 
thanked her, and went on. Presently he stopped 
dead in his tracks. There were only a few of 
these Oriental women, relatively, and yet their 
shops contained large quantities of needlework. 
It was as plain as could be that these few women 
never made all that lace. 

“ Then where did it come from? ” asked Willie. 
He pondered the matter a moment. “ By 
George!” he said to himself, “that stuff’s 
smuggled. I’ll bet a dollar to a doughnut it is. 
That’s why they can sell it so cheap.” He 
paused to consider the matter further. Another 
idea came into his mind. “ It’s as plain as day¬ 
light,” he said to himself after a moment. “ It 
explains everything. That’s why those women 
watched Roy and Mr. Robbins so closely the day 


WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY 


201 


we first came here for luncheon. They saw they 
had on uniforms something like those of the cus¬ 
toms inspectors at the piers. They thought they 
might be looking for smuggled goods. That’s 
why those women all scooted into the shops as 
we came along. It was to sound a 


warning. 


And that’s why the men in that restaurant sized 
us up so closely. Likely they are all in the smug¬ 
gling game. They thought we were spying on 
them. No wonder they watched us.” 

Once more Willie pondered the matter. “ I 
don’t suppose it is any news to the boss that there 
is smuggling going on here,” he thought, “ but I 
don’t believe the office is doing a thing about it. 
They’re too busy with the booze situation. I’ll 
just keep my eyes open and my wits about me 
and maybe I can find out something the boss will 
like to know. This may be the very chance I am 
looking for.” 


CHAPTER XII 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 

T once Willie was afire with the idea. 



^ Here was his chance. If his suspicions 
were correct, there must be a great deal of stuff 
for sale in these little shops that had been brought 
into the country without paying the duty on it. 
One thing was certain: if duty had been paid on 
these articles, they could never be sold at the 
prices asked for them. There was absolutely no 
question about that. The only point in doubt 
was whether the goods were home-made as repre¬ 
sented, or imported. The more Willie turned 
the matter over in his mind, the more certain he 
became that many of the pieces were of foreign 
make. He distinctly recalled several shops that 
he had visited, where there were dozens of lace 
pieces on view. There might be many more not 
in sight. But certainly it would have taken 
many women many weeks to make all the pieces 
offered in just one of these shops. Willie was 
certain that the women of the Armenian quarter 
could never have done all that work. 


202 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 203 

But it was one thing to make up his mind that 
the goods in question were smuggled, and quite 
another thing to decide how he should go about 
proving it. In fact, at first, Willie could see no 
way by which he was to get the proof. But as 
he considered the matter, the situation began to 
clarify itself. Probably there were some par¬ 
ticular men or firms engaged in bringing the stuff 
into the country. If he could find who these men 
were, it might not be so difficult to find how they 
got the stuff in. 

Willie fell to wondering how goods like these 
laces could be packed so as to deceive the customs 
inspectors. That seemed to be a simple thing to 
do. The goods could be rolled up or doubled up 
and hidden in almost anything that was dry and 
clean. It occurred to Willie that if one were to 
study the lists of imports one might find a clue 
there. If any particular Armenian merchant 
were making repeated importations, there might 
be reason for an investigation of these importa¬ 
tions. 

But when he came to trv this method, he found 
it was anything but simple. To begin with, he 
did not have access to the needed records. To 
get access, he would have to explain why he 
wanted to examine the records. He had made 
up his mind to say nothing about his suspicions 


204 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


until he had something definite to go on. So he 
dropped the idea of examining the import lists. 
The idea, as he saw later, was a sound one. 

For a time Willie could see no way to proceed. 
Then, as he was thinking the matter over one day, 
he suddenly remembered the handkerchief in the 
can of pistachio-nuts. At once the incident took 
on a new meaning. He had wondered, at the 
time, why the merchant seemed so flustered over 
the matter. Now he believed that he knew. 
The handkerchief was smuggled. Likely it had 
been brought into the country in the can of 
pistachio-nuts and the merchant had overlooked 
it. Here was something to work on. Here was 
a tangible clue. If one handkerchief was smug¬ 
gled through in nut cans, why might not others 
be? 

That evening Willie walked into the store 
where he had bought the pistachio-nuts. He had 
been in several times, and the merchant knew 
him. He nodded in a friendly way as Willie 
entered, and stepped behind the counter to serve 
him. Willie priced a number of things and ex¬ 
plained that when he earned more money he 
would buy some of them. The merchant grinned. 

“ I’ll take some of these nuts,” said Willie, and 
he laid down a dime. 

“ Ten cent worth? ” asked the shopkeeper. 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 205 

“ Yes,” said Willie. 

The man put a weight on his scales and poured 
the nuts out of a small can. There were just 
enough nuts in it to fill the order. The man set 
the empty can on the counter, while he dumped 
the nuts from his scales into a paper sack. 
Willie picked up the can. He could not read the 
label on it. The characters were strange. He 
did not know whether they were Greek or Turk¬ 
ish or what thev were. 

“ They’re good,” said Willie, picking up 
the nuts. “ Where do they come from? Ar¬ 
menia? ” 

“No understand,” replied the merchant. 

“ Where from?” asked Willie again, holding 
up the bag of rruts. “ Home? ” 

“ No understand,” said the merchant, again. 

Just then his wife came into the shop. She 
could speak English more readily. “ What you 
want know? ” she inquired. 

Willie smiled. “ Where these good nuts come 
from? ” he said. 

“ Habib Mahaleb,” said the woman. 

Instantly her husband frowned and angrily 
muttered something in his own tongue. The 
woman seemed distressed. 

“ No, no,” said Willie, with quick intuition. 
“ What country do they come from? Turkey? ” 


206 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


The smile came back to the woman’s face. 
“ Syria,” she said. 

“Good!” said Willie. “Fine country, 
Syria.” 

The woman smiled more broadly than ever. 
“ My home,” she said. “ Fine country.” 

“ When I get enough money saved,” said 
Willie, “ I am going to buy a lace collar for my 
mother.” 

“Fine laces. Cheap!” said the woman. 
“ Mother like lace? ” 

“ Round her neck,” said Willie. “ So,” and 
he drew his fingers along the lapels of his coat. 

The woman laughed, showing her pearly teeth. 
“ Very good,” she said. 

“ How long did it take you to make that 
scarf? ” asked Willie, picking up a beautiful lace 
head-dress. 

“ Me no make. Buy.” 

“Where? Syria?” 

The woman shrugged her shoulders and made 
no reply. In his mind Willie replied for her. 
“ Habib Mahaleb, I’ll bet,” he thought. 

Then he smiled good-bye, took his pistachio- 
nuts, and left the store. He went along the 
street, studying the sign over each door. He was 
searching for Habib Mahaleb. Down one street 
and up another went Willie, but with no success. 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 207 


Finally on the window of almost the only 
Oriental store remaining, Willie found the name 
he was searching for. The place seemed to be a 
business house of considerable size. Willie 
entered and asked for a dime’s worth of pistachio- 
nuts. A clerk promptly took from a shelf a tin 
can exactly similar to the one the other merchant 
had emptied, and weighed out the nuts. 

The clerk was a young fellow and seemed in¬ 
clined to converse. He was dressed exactly like 
an American and talked English readily, though 
with a marked accent. 

“ Like America? ” asked Willie. 

“ Fine.” 

“ Where’s your home? Syria? ” 

“No. Armenia.” 

“ Going to stay in America? ” 

“ Sure. America good place.” 

“ Going to be a merchant? ” 

“ Sure.” 

“ Sell laces and nuts and shawls? ” and Willie 
swept his hand around at the stock about him. 

The young man nodded. 

“Where do these things come from? Ar¬ 
menia? ” asked Willie, pointing to the laces. 

A subtle change came over the young 
merchant’s face. “ All American,” said the 
clerk. 


208 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ But our American women cannot make such 
beautiful things,” said Willie. 

“Armenians make them,” said the lad, with 
obvious pride. “Armenians here. All made in 
America.” 

Willie said good-bye and went out. He felt 
absolutely certain the fellow had been lying to 
him. Otherwise, why came that crafty look into 
his face? “ Mr. Habib Mahaleb,” muttered 
Willie, “ I think I’ve got something on you, all 
right. I’m going to look into your import 
records and see how many pistachio-nuts and 
other goods you are importing. I believe I’ve 
got something to go on, now.” 

At his first opportunity to talk to Mr. King, 
on the following day, Willie set forth his sus¬ 
picions concerning Habib Mahaleb, with his rea¬ 
sons for those suspicions. 

“ I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you are cor¬ 
rect in your guess,” said Mr. King. “Are you 
going any further with your investigations? Or 
do you want our special investigators to take up 
the case now? ” There was a smile on his face, 
but it was a pleasant smile. 

“ I’d like permission to look over some import 
records,” said Willie, “ and find out what that 
fellow is shipping in.” 

“ We’ll look the records over all right enough,” 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 209 

said Mr. King, “ but it will be best to have the 
work done by one of the clerks who is familiar 
with those records.” 

When Mr. King saw that Willie looked dis¬ 
appointed, he went on, “ You needn’t feel bad 
> about it. You’lLget the credit if anything is 
turned up. But it is better to have them do the 
work because they can do it so much faster 
and also because I cannot spare you from that 
gate.” 

“ Very well, sir,” said Willie, but he was 
plainly disappointed. 

Mr. King at once ordered an inspection of the 
list of goods imported from the Near East. The 
records showed nothing to confirm Willie’s sus¬ 
picions. The name of Habib Mahaleb appeared 
relatively few times on the record of shipments 
from Turkey. 

Willie was as much puzzled as he was morti¬ 
fied. For he hadn’t the least doubt in his own 
mind that he was right about the matter. Yet 
for a time he was completely baffled. He saw no 
way to get any farther with his investigation. 
But one day a secret agent of the department 
came in, who seemed to know a great deal about 
goods from the Near East. Willie overheard 
the man explaining to Mr. King about some 
shipments from Constantinople. As soon as the 


210 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

I 

agent was clone talking to Mr. King, Willie put 
some questions to him. 

“ Mr. Easterly,” he said, “ is there any way in 
which the shipment of goods from the Near East 
can be covered up? ” 

“ What do you mean? ” asked the agent. 

“ Why, suppose you have reason to believe that 
certain goods came into this country from Tur¬ 
key, and yet you cannot find any record of such 
shipments from Turkey. How could that 
be? ” 

“ That’s simple enough. They might have 
been transshipped at some intermediate point, 
and your record would perhaps show only that 
they came from that intermediate point.” 

“Ah!” cried Willie. “That must be it. I 
never thought of that. What would be a likely 
port at which to transship goods from Arme¬ 
nia? ” 

“ Oh! They might go to almost any Medi¬ 
terranean port—Genoa, Naples, or almost any 
place. It’s hard to say. It would depend upon 
circumstances.” 

“ Thank you,” said Willie. “ You have given 
me exactly the clue I want.” 

At his first opportunity Willie once more 
spoke to Mr. King about the matter. “ I believe 
I know why we couldn’t find any trace of Habib 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 211 


Mahaleb’s shipments,” said Willie. “ They were 
likely transshipped at some intermediate port. 
May I make an examination of the records? ” 

“ You’re nothing if not persistent,” laughed 
Mr. King. “ I don’t believe we can afford to 
put any more time on the matter. The clerks are 
already overloaded, and I don’t like to ask them 
to go over those records again. Besides, I don’t 
believe that this smuggling, if smuggling there 
be, amounts to very much.” 

“ I didn’t ask to have the clerks examine the 
records,” explained Willie. “ I asked if I might 
examine them myself. I’ll be glad to do it after 
hours, if you’ll let me.” 

Mr. King studied the lad before him keenly. 
“ Why are you so determined to go on with this 
case? ” he asked. “ Have you a bone to pick 
with your friend Habib? ” 

“No, sir,” replied Willie. “ I have no reason 
whatever except that I want to get ahead in 
Secret Service work. I am absolutely certain I 
am right in my suspicions. If I could run this 
matter down, it would help both you and me. 
The government would get some revenues due it 
and I would get some experience I need. I am 
more than willing to do the work.” 

“ Very well, then. Have it as you wish. I’ll 
instruct the clerks to show you how to examine 


212 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

the lists and to allow you to work at them in your 
own time.” 

“ Thank you,” said Willie. “ Maybe 1 am 
wrong, but I’ll never be satisfied until I know 
I am.” 

Willie plunged into this new labor with enthu¬ 
siasm. Half of his noon hour and at least an 
hour every evening he spent in poring over the 
records in question. He found it dull, dry, and 
at first disappointing work. Some importations 
he found in the name of Habib Mahaleb, but they 
were not such as to excite suspicion. 

But one thing Willie noticed that presently 
burned itself into his consciousness. From the 
port of Genoa repeated importations of wheat 
and pistachio-nuts were being sent to Marrash 
Roukas. The importation of pistachio-nuts 
seemed proper enough. But why should any¬ 
body be shipping wheat, a few hundred pounds 
at a time, from the Orient to America? Willie 
could form no theory that seemed to explain it. 
Right here the detective sense that was really 
born in him asserted itself. Something told him 
that the thing was suspicious. 

When he had completed his search, Willie re¬ 
ported to the Special Agent. “ I can’t find a 
thing that looks suspicious about Habib Ma- 
haleb’s importations,” said Willie, “ unless it be 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 213 


that they are suspicious because of their absence. 
There are relatively few shipments credited to 
him. That seems queer, because he has a pretty 
big store.” 

“ He may get his stuff from other dealers in 
America,” said Mr. King. 

“ That’s a possibility I hadn’t thought about. 
But there is one thing, Mr. King, that I’d like to 
call your attention to. A fellow named Marrash 
Roukas has been importing wheat and pistachio- 
nuts into this country from Genoa. There has 
been shipment after shipment, and always in 
small lots. Now what does any one want to 
ship wheat to America for, anyway, when we 
raise so much? And why does he want to buy 
it in three-hundred pound lots? ” 

The Chief pricked up his ears. “ Willie,” he 
said, “ that’s a subject of interest. I think I’ve 
never heard of a case just like that before. It is 
interesting enough to justify our looking into 
it.” 

“ What are you going to do? ” 

“ Why, we’ll find out when the gentleman 
makes another shipment and have a look at the 
stuff.” 

“ It’s been coming pretty regularly,” said 
Willie. “ There’s a steamer due from Genoa 
and other Mediterranean ports in a couple of 


214 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


days, and she might have some wheat for Roukas 
aboard of her.” 

“ I’ll just make a note of that,” said Mr. King, 
“ and have Easterly keep his eye open for such 
a shipment.” 

“ Gee! I’d like to be there when the boat 
comes in,” thought Willie, but he did not venture 
to ask for permission. All he could do was to 
wait and see whether the steamer had any goods 
for Roukas, and if so, whether or not Easterly 
found anything suspicious about it. 

Like an eager hound straining at his leash was 
Willie during the next two days. The possi¬ 
bility of success in his venture seemed to Willie 
to mean so much that he could hardly keep his 
mind on his work. It seemed to him that he 
must be present to aid in the search of the sus¬ 
pected goods—provided, of course, the steamer 
contained any. A hundred times he was on the 
point of asking his chief for this favor. But 
each time he fought down the wish. His place, 
he knew well enough, was right where he was—at 
the gate. And the best way he could make good 
with his chief was by staying right at his post, at 
the gate. But it was not strange that Willie 
began to hate that gate. It seemed to be a bar to 
his own desires. 

Somehow he managed to keep his lips sealed, 



THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 215 

though his manner showed plainly enough that 
something was troubling him. 

“What’s worrying you, Willie?” said Mr. 
King, late on the afternoon of the second day. 

“ I can’t help thinking that maybe—perhaps— 
Mr. Easterly might—might miss—might over¬ 
look something,” stammered Willie, afraid to say 
too much, yet fearful of saying too little. 

Mr. King laughed. He had been a boy him¬ 
self, and the time was not so far distant, either, 
that he had forgotten how boys feel about things 
that mean a great deal to them. 

“ I think I understand,” he said sympatheti¬ 
cally. “ I’ll tell Mr. Easterly to be particularly 
careful if he finds anything for Roukas.” 

When word came, next day, that the steamer 
they were looking for had left Quarantine and 
was on her way to her dock, Mr. King called 
Willie to his desk. “ That boat you’re looking 
for,” he said, “ is on her way up from Quarantine 
now. She’ll be docked by ten o’clock. I want 
you to take this letter to Mr. Henderson. You 
know him, don’t you? He’s one of our special 
agents.” 

“ Yes, sir, I know him,” said Willie. 

“ Well, you may leave here at twenty minutes 
of ten. Put the message in Mr. Henderson’s 
own hands. Do you understand? ” 




216 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“And,” said Mr. King, with a smile, “ if you 
don’t get back here until one o’clock it will be all 
right.” 

“ Oh! ” gasped Willie. “ Thank you ever so 
much, Mr. King.” 

Willie could hardly stay in his seat until nine- 
forty came. Then he grabbed his cap and bolted 
through the gate. Like so many other seeming 
obstacles in life, it was no longer a bar to prog¬ 
ress. It was an opening to advancement. At 
least so it seemed to Willie. He ran to the sub¬ 
way, caught a train, rode to the proper station, 
then tore away hotfoot for the pier. 

The scene he had witnessed while he was wait¬ 
ing for the Lycoming to get into her pier was 
reenacted now, though with this difference. The 
throng that awaited the arrival of the Lycoming 
was composed almost wholly of native Ameri¬ 
cans, and mostly of people of means and culture. 
They were quiet and self-contained. The crowd 
Willie saw now was largely made up of Greeks, 
Italians, Syrians, Turks, Armenians, and other 
strange peoples from strange lands. It was an 
interesting, picturesque crowd, and Willie was 
glad of a chance to see all these foreigners at 
such close quarters. But what a difference there 
was in their behavior! 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 217 


“My gracious!” thought Willie. “ You 
might think there was a fire, or at least a prize¬ 
fight going on, the way they talk.” 

It was no wonder Willie was so amazed at the 
manner of conversation he now beheld. Such 
violent gestures, such excited explosive speech, he 
had never before witnessed. He could hardly be¬ 
lieve that anybody could converse in that way 
except under stress of violent emotion. Yet what 
he saw now was hardly a circumstance to what he 
saw later, when the boat was docked, and these 
foreign folks were greeting their compatriots 
from far lands. 

But at first Willie had eyes for nothing but 
luggage. He had delivered his letter to Mr. 
Henderson, and found Mr. Easterly; and with 
him, he took up a position where he could watch 
the incoming baggage put ashore. 

Interesting enough was the manner of its de¬ 
livery. Huge slings or nets made of rope were 
lowered into the hold, by a long derrick arm. 
The nets were filled with trunks and bags and 
boxes and bales. Then the donkey engines rat¬ 
tled and up through the open hatchways came the 
laden slings. A moment the loads dangled in 
air, while the cumbersome derrick arms swung 
round. Then the slings were lowered to the 
decks. Strong hands threw back the nets and, 


218 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


lifting the contents, sent trunk after trunk, box 
after box, and bundle after bundle, down an in¬ 
clined conveyor to the pier, where gangs of 
freight handlers stood in line, with hand trucks, 
to wheel each piece of baggage to the proper 
place on the pier. 

Willie had noticed long lines of huge placards, 
running lengthwise of the pier, and high over¬ 
head, bearing the letters of the alphabet. Noav 
he saw what these letters were for. Near the 
foot of the baggage chute stood a man in charge 
of the baggage handlers. As each piece of bag¬ 
gage came down to the pier, this man looked at 
the label pasted on it, and called out S or P or T 
or whatever letter the label bore. The truckman 
who wheeled away the piece of baggage took it 
directly to that section of the pier under the cor¬ 
responding letter. The baggage was marked in 
conformitv with the owner’s name. Thus, if a 
man’s name was Jones, his baggage would bear 
a label marked J, and go to the section under the 
letter J, and thither Jones would follow and wait 
until a customs inspector came to examine his 
baggage, to see that the custom laws were not 
violated. If the inspector found the baggage all 
right, he pasted another label on it, and the owner 
was free to remove the piece of baggage so 
passed. But if the inspector was not satisfied 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 219 

about any piece of baggage, he could order it re¬ 
moved for further search or for seizure. 

It was indeed a picturesque sight to see the in¬ 
spectors going through piece after piece of bag¬ 
gage, while the excited owners gesticulated and 
tried to explain about this or that, in broken 
English, or volubly explained in explosive speech 
to an interpreter. 

Yet interesting as these things were, they were 
not what Willie had come to see. Under differ¬ 
ent circumstances, he might have lost himself 
completely in contemplation of this interesting 
spectacle. But now he had small taste for it. 
The more prosaic boxes of freight were what in¬ 
terested Willie now. 

The minute the luggage of passengers was out 
of the way, the freight holds were opened and 
articles of commerce began to shoot from the 
vessel to the pier. It was not such a simple mat¬ 
ter to keep track of merchandise. It had not 
been stamped, in advance, with letters corre¬ 
sponding with the owners’ names. Nor was it 
spread out over a great part of the pier. Instead, 
the stevedores hustled it away on their trucks and 
stacked it in great piles, along the centre of the 
pier. Each piece of baggage was stamped with 
the consignee’s name, to be sure, but it was not 
always easy to find these marks, until Mr. East- 


220 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


erly directed the stevedores to put the boxes on 
their trunks, with the addresses up. Even then 
smaller packages were sometimes piled two or 
three deep on the little hand trunks. Mr. East¬ 
erly, however, was skilled at the sort of work he 
was now doing, and he readily kept tab on each 
piece of freight. Although Willie could not de¬ 
cipher the labels so readily as his companion, he 
was nevertheless of use in the search. He was 
examining the packages rather than the ad¬ 
dresses. Specifically, he was looking for wheat. 
He knew it would be in bags and he was looking 
for sacks about like those he was accustomed to 
see American farmers deliver at the mills, with 
two bushels of wheat in them. 

For a long time the only bags that came out 
of the hold were bags of Turkish coffee. Great, 
bulging sacks were they, far larger than the ac¬ 
customed wheat sacks Willie was thinking of. 
And there was a considerable shipment of them. 
With these bags was hoisted another, not unlike 
them in appearance; and it is likely that it might 
have gotten by both the watchers undetected had 
not Willie observed that the stevedores had diffi¬ 
culty in handling it. The bags of coffee they 
had tossed about readily enough. But this 
huge bag required the united efforts of two men 
to get it safely to the pier. This little dif- 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 221 


ference did not escape the observing eyes of 
Willie, 

“ I wonder what makes that bag so much 
heavier than the others,” he said to Mr. Easterly. 
“ It isn’t any larger.” 

“ We’ll have a look at it,” said the customs 
agent. 

They did. It was consigned to Marrash 
Roukas. Mr. Easterly directed the stevedores to 
set the sack to one side. 

Willie was now almost as excited as some, of 
the foreigners he had seen jabbering away at the 
customs inspectors. But he tried hard to control 
himself. The only thing that enabled him to keep 
himself quiet was the thought that there might be 
more freight on the boat for Roukas. It was 
really a. wonder that they had noted this bag. 
They might easily miss something else. So 
Willie took himself in hand and settled down 
once more to a vigilant watch. 

His effort was rewarded, for a little later, as a 
small box was being wheeled past him, he spied, 
at the same moment that Mr. Easterly caught it, 
the name Roukas on the box. 

“ Put that box with that sack,” directed the 
customs agent. 

A few moments later the noon whistles blew. 
The stevedores quit work. 


222 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

“ I have to be back at the office at one o’clock, 
sure,” said Willie. There was an appealing look 
in his eyes. 

Mr. Easterly laughed. He had taken a fancy 
to the lad. “ I see you are a diplomat,” he said. 
“You know how to say one thing when you mean 
another.” 

“ If that’s being a diplomat,” Willie confessed, 
“ then I am a diplomat. I see I might as well 
be out-and-out with you. Would it be possible 
to see what’s in those packages before I have to 
go?” 

“ YY>u know what Shakespeare says,” quoted 
Mr. Easterly. “ ‘ All things come to him who 
waits.’ You have been waiting long enough. 
We’ll just have a look at these things. It won’t 
take more than a minute.” 

A hatchet was obtained and the lid ripped off 
the box. Inside were two dozen cans of pistachio- 
nuts. Eagerly Willie lifted out a can. 

“ What shall we empty it into? ” he asked. 

“ Just wait a moment,” said Mr. Easterly. 
“ We may not have to empty it. We’ll first see 
if the cans feel alike.” 

With trembling fingers Willie lifted can after 
can out of the box. Suddenly he held one aloft. 
“ That isn’t nearly as heavy as the others,” he 
cried. 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 223 

“ Open it,” said the customs agent. 

Willie pried open the lid and peeped into the 
can. Then he gave a cry, and reaching into the 
can, drew out a roll of beautiful hand-made lace. 
Two other cans proved to be light in weight, and 
to contain lace. When the smuggled material 
had all been drawn forth and unrolled, it was 
found that there were yards and yards of it. 

“ I congratulate you,” said the agent, smiling. 

“ Let’s examine that bag,” was Willie’s reply. 

The agent chuckled. “ Y r ou’re keen as a hound 
on a hot scent,” he said. 

A great empty box was brought, at Mr. East¬ 
erly’s command, that would hold the contents of 
the bag. Another box was placed beside it, and 
the bag lifted to this box. Then the customs 
agent carefully ripped an opening in the mouth 
of the bag. In a solid stream the contents poured 
from the bag into the waiting box. 

“Wheat!” cried Willie, so excited that he 
could hardly stand still. 

“ Wheat it is,” said Mr. Easterly. “ We 
shall soon see whether you have uncovered some¬ 
thing more or whether you merely had a pipe 
dream.” 

Steadily the wheat poured out of the small 
opening in the bag. For some moments the flow 
continued uninterrupted. Then it suddenly 


224 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


stopped. The two watchers glanced at each 
other. 

“ What stopped it? ” asked Willie. 

“ We’ll soon find out,” said Mr. Easterly. 

With his knife he enlarged the opening. 
Again the wheat poured forth, but in a second 
the flow became a trickle. Then something white 
began to project through the opening. 

“ It looks as though we had found something,” 
remarked Mr. Easterly. 

He thrust his hand into the bag and drew forth 
a great roll of something white. Carefully he 
undid the wrappings, then opened what was in¬ 
side. 

“ Lace handkerchiefs! ” cried Willie. 

The agent ran his fingers through the roll with 
practiced skill. “ Fifty dozens of them,” he said 
after a moment. “ Again I congratulate you, 
Willie.” 

“ What are you going to do about Marrash 
Roukas? ” demanded Willie, his acute mind leap¬ 
ing ahead. 

“ We’ll have a little talk with him,” said the 
agent, with a smile, “ and maybe Uncle Sam will 
get in a little cash as a result. But before we let 
him know we are on to his game, it might be well 
to take a look at his place. Come on. We’ll slip 
down to the Armenian quarter and look him up.” 


THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS 225 

After giving directions about the packages 
they had opened, they hustled off to the Arme¬ 
nian district. “ Did you notice where his place 
was, when you were looking about here? ” in¬ 
quired Mr. Easterly. 

“ It’s queer,” said Willie. “ I can’t seem to 
remember seeing that name at all.” 

“ We’ll look him up in a directory or a tele¬ 
phone book. He’ll be in one or the other, for he’s 
been in New York for some years, according to 
the records you looked up.” 

They stepped into a drug store and Mr. East¬ 
erly consulted a telephone book. “ He doesn’t 
have a ’phone,” he said. Then he turned to the 
directory. There was no one listed in the direc¬ 
tory under the name Mar rash Roukas. 

“ Humph! ” mused the Special Agent. “ This 
is getting interesting. I don’t see how the census 
takers ever missed a merchant like that. We’ll 
have to go to original sources. Come on.” 

They went down one street and up another, 
examining every name on every shop in the dis¬ 
trict. When they were done, they knew no more 
about Marrash Roukas than they knew when 
they started. Apparently there was no such per¬ 
son in the Armenian quarter or in New York 
City. 


CHAPTER XIII 


SAVED BY WIRELESS 

I T was only by a lively sprint that Willie got 

back to his office within the time limit set by 

Mr. King. In fact, it was two minutes past one 

before Willie was really in his own office and at 

*/ 

his post. How different that old gate looked 
now! As it swung open, it was almost like a 
welcoming hand extended in greeting. 

Willie was just bursting to tell the news, but 
he had no opportunity to do so until Mr. King 
came in from his luncheon. 

“ Well, what luck, Hawkshaw? ” said Mr. 
King. 

“ The best of luck,” said Willie, and he told 
his boss about the discoveries Mr. Easterly and 
he had made. 

“ Good work, Willie,” said the Special Agent. 
“ You have really done something worth while. 
Your discovery will break up this sort of thing 
for a time.” 

“ I don’t know whether it will or not,” said 

Willie, suddenly rueful, “ for there isn’t any such 

226 


SAVED BY WIRELESS 227 

fellow as Marrash Roukas. At least we can’t 
find any trace of him.” 

“ How’s that? ” 

Willie told Mr. King of their vain search. He 
replied, “ Well, you’ve stumbled on an unusually 
interesting case.” 

“ It will be more interesting if we find 
Roukas,” said Willie. “ But I don’t know how 
we are ever going to do that.” 

Mr. King did not seem disturbed. “ We’ll let 
him find himself,” he said. 

“ What do you mean? ” 

“ Let’s wait until Easterly disposes of the 
case,” said the Treasury Agent. “ Then we’ll 
know all about it.” And that was all the com¬ 
fort Willie could get from his superior. 

But Willie didn’t have to wait nearly as long 
to learn the conclusion of the story as he had 
feared he would. Before the office closed that 
evening, Mr. Easterly came swinging up the 
corridor. 

“ Got him,” he said to Willie. “ He’s in the 
Tombs prison now.” 

“ Gee! ” gasped Willie. “ How did you find 
him so soon? ” 

“ I let him find himself,” said Mr. Easterly. 
“ I went back to the pier and waited for him to 
call for his goods. I reckoned he would come 


228 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


early, while everything was in confusion on the 
pier, because he wouldn’t attract half so much 
attention then. That’s just what he did. He 
drove up with an old junk wagon and asked for 
freight for Marrash Roukas. Of course we 
grabbed him.” 

“ Of course,” said Willie, with chagrin. “ I 
never thought of that.” 

“You will be interested to know,” went on the 
customs agent, “ that there really isn’t any such 
fellow as Marrash Roukas, after all.” 

“ There isn’t? Then how did you catch him? 
I don’t exactly understand.” 

The agent laughed. “ Marrash Roukas is an 
assumed name,” he said. “ The fellow is really a 
poor peddler named Selim Sora.” 

Willie’s face grew long. “ Then we haven’t 
got anything on Habib Mahaleb, after all,” he 
cried. 

“ On the contrary, we have a whole lot on 
him. At first brother Sora was as ignorant as a 
bronze statue. Couldn’t speak English, you 
know. But I soon got him to talking. Then he 
said it was all a mistake. He had gotten the 
names mixed when he asked for the goods. I 
showed him different. Next he tried to bribe me. 
But finally, when I told him it would mean a 
long term in prison unless he came through with 


SAVED BY WIRELESS 


229 


the truth, he opened up and gave the whole game 
away. He’s just a tool for Mahaleb. The goods 
are ordered and paid for by Mahaleb and shipped 
to Roukas. Sora gets them at the pier and de¬ 
livers them to Mahaleb. They thought we’d 
never see through the game. By George! They 
had reason to think so. Why, this thing has been 
going on for months. I’m going to tell Mr. 
King so and tell him that it is entirely due to you 
that we broke it up.” 

Willie’s eyes were shining bright. He hardly 
trusted himself to reply, but managed to say, 
“ I’m mighty glad it wasn’t a pipe dream.” 
Then Mr. Easterly went on into Mr. King’s of¬ 
fice, and Willie turned to his work. 

He was very happy over the outcome of the 
affair. If it were not for that awful suspicion 
of dishonesty that hung over his head, Willie 
would have been the happiest lad in New York. 
But he could never forget that he was under a 
cloud. He must go on with the tedious task of 
clearing away that cloud. 

All the afternoon he worked diligently at his 
desk. When five o’clock came, he put away his 
things and stepped to Mr. King’s door. “ I’m 
going to work at my wireless until the building 
closes, Mr. King,” he said. 

His superior nodded and Willie went into his 


230 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


wireless room. He was very particular nowa¬ 
days to let his boss know where he Avas. If only 
he could find some one who kneAv where he \\ r as 
during that fatal three-quarters of an hour, when 
the papers were stolen. He must hunt and hunt 
until he did find some one. 

He sat do\\m at his wireless, adjusted his head- 
piece, threw over his SAvitch and listened in, pre¬ 
paratory to sending out the first call he had se¬ 
lected to make that afternoon. Day after day 
during the tAvo weeks or more that had elapsed 
since the papers were taken, he had been calling 
up amateur after amateur, asking the same ques¬ 
tion: “ Have you any recollection of eA^er hear¬ 
ing the call CBWC sent out by CBM?” Al¬ 
ways came the ansAver, “ No.” 

Noav he Avas about to go on with his seemingly 
hopeless quest. But just as he put his finger to 
his key, to flash out the first of the signal calls, 
he Avas startled by hearing his OAvn signal. 

“ CBM—CBM—CBM de KWC.” 

Two or three times he had been able to call to 
his felloAvs back home, during the noon hour. 
Doubtless he could have talked Avith them everv 
night, if he had had access to his Avireless then. 
But this Avas the very first time that he had heard 
anybody call him. It gave him a strange feeling. 
Quickly he flashed out his answer. 



SAVED BY WIRELESS 


231 


“ KWC—KWC—KWC de CBM—I—I— 
I.” (Ward liner, Morro Castle , Willie Brown 
answering. Go ahead.) 

“ This is Reynolds,” came the message. 
“ Been trying all the morning to get you.” 

“ Where are you? ” flashed back Willie. 

“Off the Jersey coast, about opposite the 
Hook.” 

“ When will you dock? ” 

“ This afternoon. Come see me this evening.” 

“Thanks,” flashed back Willie. “I will. 
Where is the Lycoming? ” 

“She ought to be in by morning. She’s a few 
hours behind us.” 

“ I’ll be over to see you this evening. I must 
get to work now. Good-bye.” 

“ Good-bye,” came the answer, and Willie re¬ 
sumed his thankless task. 

But his heart was lighter. He would have a 
friend to talk to that evening. The word friend 
had become very precious to Willie. 

Persistently he continued his search through 
the ether, until the evening whistles warned him 
that he would have to get out of the building 
promptly, if he did not want to be locked in. He 
put on his cap, walked rapidly down the corridor, 
and got a bite to eat at a near-by quick lunch 
counter. Then he went for a little walk in Bat- 


232 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


tery Park. At half-past seven he started for the 
Ward line piers. The Morro Castle was docked, 
and all was quiet aboard her. Willie gained ad¬ 
mission to the pier and sought out Mr. Reynolds 
in the wireless cabin. 

“ Plello! ” cried the wireless man, jumping up 
and grasping Willie’s hand warmly. “ How 
goes it? How are you getting on in the customs 
service? ” 

A cloud came over Willie’s face. “ I oughtn’t 
to bother you with my troubles,” he said, “ but it 
has been pretty hard to stand up under them, 
for I hadn’t a friend in the city to talk it over 
with.” 

“Trouble?” said Reynolds, sympathetically. 
“ What’s gone wrong? ” 

“ Some valuable papers disappeared, and they 
think I took them.” 

The wireless man opened his eyes wide. “ The 
dickens! ” he said. “ Tell me about it. Why do 
they think you took the papers? ” 

“ It’s this way. You know I rigged up my 
wireless in the office to send orders for the Chief. 
But I am not supposed to use the outfit for my¬ 
self except in my own time; that is, during the 
noon hour or after office hours. It was while I 
was in the wireless room during the noon hour 
that the papers disappeared.” 


SAVED BY WIRELESS 


233 


“ That’s plain enough,” said Mr. Reynolds. 
“ Why don’t you explain it to them? ” 

“ I have, but the trouble is that I am the only 
person known to have been in the office during 
that time, and I have no way to prove I spent it 
in the wireless room. There isn’t a soul who saw 
me come in or go out.” 

“ The dickens! That is a fix. Isn’t there any 
way that you could prove you were there? ” 

“ There’s just one way, and that seems hope¬ 
less. If I could find just one person who heard 
my wireless signals during that period, I could 
clear myself. But I can’t find anybody who 
did.” 

“ I don’t understand. What about the party 
you were talking to? Can’t he prove that you 
were at your instrument? ” 

“ There’s the rub. I wasn’t talking to any¬ 
body. I was merely calling and I couldn’t get 
any answer. I was trying to get CBWC—the 
wireless club at home I told you about.” 

The wireless man sprang to his feet, and 
stepped to his desk. “ What day was that? ” he 
asked. 

“ The very day you and Roy sailed away.” 

“ Then your troubles are over. I heard you 
calling, and here is a. record of the fact.” And 
he opened his wireless log-book and showed to 


234 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Willie an entry. “ Tuesday, 1 o’clock p. m. 
CBM has been calling CBWC for three-quarters 
of an hour.” 


CHAPTER XIV 


WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY? 

•p°R a moment Willie was fairly speechless 
-*• with astonishment. It was too good to be 
true. The thing he had been unable to accom¬ 
plish through many hours of patient effort, had 
been accomplished seemingly by pure luck. At 
last his innocence was established. 

“ I can’t understand it,” cried Willie, as soon 
as he recovered from his astonishment. “ I never 
dreamed you would hear me, because you use a 
wave-length longer than mine and would be 
listening for messages in your own wave-length.” 

“ Ordinarily I should have been. But Roy 
tried hard to get you by wireless before he left. 
He wanted to send a friendly good-bye message. 
He couldn’t get you, so he asked me to see if I 
could get you and deliver the message. I tried 
several times, with no luck. Then I made a last 
effort when I was about two hours out. It was a 
singular coincidence. Just as I got my instru¬ 
ments regulated for your wave-length, you began 

to call CBWC yourself. Of course, I listened 

236 


236 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


in, expecting every minute that you would be 
done calling. Once in a while I shifted to my 
own wave-length for a moment and then back to 
yours. Nobody called me, and I heard every 
call you made. When you stopped calling, I 
tried to get you, but couldn’t.” 

“ That was because I left my instrument the 
instant I stopped calling and went to my desk. 
I don’t quite see why you entered my call in your 
log, though.” 

“ Well, we usually jot down everything out of 
the usual, and also many things not out of the 
usual. I thought you’d like to see your call in 
my log when I got back, so I wrote down that 
entry as a friendly act.” 

“ It was indeed a friendly act,” said Willie 
fervently. “ You have done me the greatest 
service any one could do. You have made it pos¬ 
sible for me to clear my reputation. Will you 
help me do that? ” 

“ Most assuredly. It will give me the greatest 
of pleasure. What do you want me to do? ” 

“ Mr. King ought to know about that entry in 
your log.” 

“ He ought to see the log itself. Leave it to 
me. I’ll show him the entry, and I can explain 
things to him better than perhaps you could your¬ 
self.” 


WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY? 237 

“ If you will, I can never adequately express 
my gratitude,” said Willie. 

“ Never mind about that. It will be a pleasure 
to me to do it.” 

So it came about that the next day saw Mr. 
Reynolds closeted with Mr. King. The log-book 
was exhibited and explained. 

“ You heard every call he made?” inquired 
Mr. King. 

“ I am certain of it.” 

“ And you are sure he was calling between the 
hours of 12:15 and 1:00 P. M.? ” 

“ Absolutely certain.” 

“ But he wasn’t calling every minute of that 
time. Wasn’t there time for him to run to my 
desk, open and close a drawer, and run back be¬ 
tween calls? ” 

“ Certainly. But it doesn’t stand to reason 
that if a fellow went to a wireless instrument and 
tried hard to call his friends, that he would run 
away from his instrument at the very time they 
might be answering. It isn’t sense.” 

“ Not under ordinary circumstances. But 
suppose a lad in his situation had plotted this 
theft and wanted to provide grounds for an alibi.. 
Mightn’t he do that very thing to throw us off 
the track? This lad is a mighty clever boy. I’ve 
found that out. He’s smart as a steel trap.” 


238 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ Your proposition is all right except for one 
thing. To provide an alibi, he’d have to make 
sure some one heard him. He’s too sharp to slip 
up that way. If he had gotten a reply to his 
call, your supposition would be within the ground 
of reason. But under the circumstances, it is 
not. No court or jury in America would ever 
convict the lad under the circumstances.” 

“ I see you are entirely right,” said Mr. King, 
“ and I am more delighted than I can tell you to 
have this proof of his innocence. For I accept it 
as proof, though we must still maintain that there 
is a theoretical possibility of his doing just what 
I suggested. He’s proving to be a corking good 
boy. And as I have watched him, I never really 
believed in my heart that he was a thief. But 
vou know in my business we have to watch any 
one to whom the finger of suspicion points. It 
would amaze you to know how many perfectly 
respectable and even eminent citizens leave their 
consciences behind when they try to get ashore 
here with dutiable goods. It makes us sort of 
suspicious of everybody.” 

Mr. Reynolds shook hands with the Chief and 
took his departure, but not until he had assured 
Willie that the latter was entirely cleared from 
suspicion. Naturally Willie was jubilant, yet 
his joy was somewhat tempered by the thought 


WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY? 239 

that although Mr. King no longer had any sus¬ 
picion as to dishonesty on his part, it had not yet 
actually been proved that he was innocent. And 
Willie knew that he would never be really sat¬ 
isfied until the real thief was uncovered and his 
own honesty was actually proved. 

Could Willie have known what took place that 
very day, while he was out for luncheon, he would 
have felt more hopeful of complete exoneration. 
For hardly had Willie left his post that noon, 
before a tall, shabbily attired cleaner slipped into 
the Chief’s office. Mr. King looked at the man 
twice before he knew him. Then he said, “ Hello, 
Frank! What brings you here all dolled up so? ” 

The cleaner shut the door and laughed. 
“ Never mind the rags, Mr. King,” he said. 
“ Just look at this.” 

From his pocket he drew forth an object 
wrapped in tissue paper. He took off the wrap¬ 
per and laid the object on the Treasury Agent’s 
desk. 

“ What is it, Sheridan?” asked Mr. King. 
“ Wax?” 

“ Correct. Take a good look at it.” 

Mr. King picked up the wax and looked at it. 
Then he sat bolt upright in his chair. “ Looks 
like the impression of a key in it,” he suggested. 

“ Let me have the key to your desk drawer,” 


240 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


said the Secret Service man. “ I mean the 
drawer from which those papers were taken.” 

Mr. King pulled out his keys and removed one 
from the ring. He handed it to Sheridan. The 
latter laid it on the wax beside the impression al¬ 
ready there, and pressed hard on it. When he 
lifted the key two distinct impressions stood side 
by side in the wax. And the impressions were 
duplicates. 

“ I felt certain of it,” said the Secret Service 
man. 

“ Where did you get that wax? ” demanded 
the Treasury Agent. 

“ Found it—in this building.” And that was 
every word about the matter the Secret Service 
man would say. “ I’ll tell you the sequel the 
minute I find it.” And the big member of the 
cleaning force picked up a spittoon, as though 
that was what he had come for, and hurried down 
the corridor with it. 

A few days later he returned. He did not 
bring back the cuspidor, however, but in its place . 
came a tall, lanky, swaggering lad, with an evil 
leer on his face. When Willie saw the lad enter¬ 
ing the anteroom he leaped to his feet, apprehen¬ 
sive of trouble. The visitor was his predecessor. 
The “ smart ” look had gone from his face, how¬ 
ever. In its place was a sullen, defiant, ugly ex- 


WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY? 241 

pression that fairly startled Willie. And when 
the former office boy glared at Willie, with a 
world of hatred shining in his eyes, Willie was 
certain he was in for trouble. His heart beat 
quick and he glanced about to see what he could 
defend himself with. His alarm was needless, 
however, for close behind young Smith came a 
large individual who plainly belonged to the 
cleaning force. Willie had to look at the man 
several times before he realized that he was look¬ 
ing at the big Secret Service man. The disguise 
was complete. A sigh of relief escaped from 
Willie’s lips when he realized who the big fellow 
was. But he had no idea what could bring young 
Smith and Sheridan into the Special Agent’s of¬ 
fice together. 

Nor did he at once find out, for the Secret 
Service man and his companion passed into the 
inner office, after the briefest announcement of 
their arrival, and the door was closed. 

Once inside the door, Sheridan drew from his 
pocket a thin, flat, narrow strip of metal. One 
end of it was plain. Little tooth-like projections 
had been filed along one edge at the other end. 
On the Special Agent’s desk Sheridan laid the 
piece of wax he had exhibited during his earlier 
visit. Beside the wax he placed the thin metal 
strip. Without a word the Special Agent picked 


242 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

up wax and metal and applied the one to the 
other. The end of the metal that had been filed 
into a key fitted exactly into the impressions of 
the desk key in the wax. 

“ So that’s the story, is it? ” said Mr. King, 
looking up. “A wax impression of my key and 
a false key filed from the pattern. It is needless 
to ask who did it. What I want to know is how 
you found it.” 

“ That wasn’t an easy job,” said Sheridan. 
“ There wasn’t much to go on, but the little we 
had proved to be sufficient.” 

“ Sit down, and let me have the whole story,” 
said Mr. King, his keen face alight with inter¬ 
est. 

The Secret Service man motioned to Tom 
Smith to be seated and then drew a chair forward 
for himself. 

“ Although circumstances pointed strongly to 
young Brown,” he said, “ they were far from 
being conclusive. If we had had proof that 
Willie was about vour office here at the time we 
know he was in the building during the particular 
luncheon hour when the papers were taken, we 
should have had a pretty tight case against him. 
With him in this room or at his desk, it would be 
impossible for another person to get to your desk 
without his knowledge. Hence it would follow 


WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY? 


243 


that he must be the thief. But if he was in his 
wireless room, as he claims he was, and has since 
proved he was, there was nothing to prevent an¬ 
other person from slipping in here unseen, and 
opening your desk. So we had those two lines 
of investigation to pursue. My predecessor pro¬ 
ceeded on the theory that Willie was likely the 
culprit and acted accordingly. And he had some 
reason to do so, too. For years you have kept 
valuable papers in your desk, untouched. New 
employees have come and old ones gone, yet noth¬ 
ing was ever taken. But now comes this new 
boy, and almost at the first opportunity for him 
to steal, the papers disappear. The desk was un¬ 
locked by a false key, of course; and we know 
that a little time previouslv Willie had the keys 
in his pocket when he left the building. He could 
easily have had a false key made. It really was 
a strong case.” 

“ It certainly was,” said Mr. King. “ I didn’t 
want to believe the lad was guilty, but I almost 
had to.” 

“ Well,” went on the Secret Service man, “ my 
predecessor worked along that theory and got 
nowhere. His open questioning, of course, told 
everybody who he was, and then his useful¬ 
ness was gone. So the Chief put me on the 
job” 


244 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ I see,” said Mr. King. “ Even I did not 
know you were on it until you came in with that 
wax.” 

“ Exactly. That’s the only way you can suc¬ 
ceed in this business. You mustn’t let your 
identity be known. So I kept under cover. I 
knew that if Willie’s statement about being in 
the wireless room was true,—and personally I 
had faith in it—then some one else slipped in here 
while the office was apparently unoccupied, got 
your papers, and slipped out unobserved. That’s 
evident. It is also evident that whoever did it at 
some time most likely had your key, in order to 
have a false one made. Who could have had 
your key? If one office boy had it, another 
might, eh? ” 

The Treasury Agent nodded assent. 

“So that pointed to young Smith here. If he 
had a key, he was likely crafty enough not to use 
it while he was still office boy, because suspicion 
would almost certainlv fall on him. But w T hen he 
had been shifted to another department, then he 
could use it, and if he got away unseen, suspicion 
would point to his successor.” 

“ Plain as daylight,” said Mr. King. 

“ I found that there was one other reason that 
might figure. Smith here has been bullying 
Willie. He has threatened to beat him the first 



WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY? 245 

time he caught him outside alone. So he evi¬ 
dently had hard feelings toward him. That sug¬ 
gested the possibility of theft for the purpose of 
getting Willie into trouble. I don’t believe he 
did it for that reason, but there was the possi¬ 
bility, you see.” Sheridan paused to light a 
cigar. 

“ I do see,” said Mr. King. 

“ Again, who would be better able to slip in 
here unobserved than some one who knew in¬ 
timately the habits of everybody in the office? 
He knew how to approach the office so as to 
avoid observation, and how to get in and out by 
back ways, if any existed. There was every 
reason to believe that if Willie Brown didn’t take 
the papers, Tom Smith did. So I went after 
Tom Smith.” 

“ How did you get him? ” 

“ Well, I cleaned spittoons and mopped floors 
and washed woodwork, and nobody paid any 
more attention to me than they do to any other 
scrub men. As a cleaner I could be in the offices 
after the clerical forces went home. Then I 
searched. It took me a long time to find that 
wax. But finally I found it tucked away in a 
crack far up on the under side of Smith’s desk. 
Only the most thorough search would have re¬ 
vealed it. When I found the wax I was con- 


246 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


fident I was on the right trail. When you gave 
me a duplicate impression in the wax, I knew I 
was right. The thing that remained was to find 
the key.” 

“ How did you ever do it? ” 

Sheridan chuckled. “ I reasoned that, as long 
as he believed himself unsuspected, Smith would 
carry the key in his pocket. He might want to 
put the papers back in the desk or to make an¬ 
other raid. So I had to figure out a way to get 
that key. One day I was in the court, where 
trucks drive in, washing things down with a hose. 
Smith happened to skip out through the court 
on an errand. I saw him coming and made sure 
that he got a thorough drenching, particularly 
from the waist down. Of course I was awfully 
sorry for the accident and did all I could to 
make amends. I got some dry clothes quick and 
helped the lad skin out of his wet ones. You bet 
I went through his pockets fast. I had that key 
before the wet trousers were fairly off of him. 
That was all I needed. It fitted the wax impres¬ 
sion exactly. But I let him go for a day or two. 
I watched him like a hawk. Twice I saw him 
examining the places where I wet him and where 
he took off his wet clothes. I knew he was hunt¬ 
ing for his key. Finally he came to me and asked 
me if, in cleaning up, I had found a key. He 


WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY? 247 

I 

said he had dropped his latch-key, and he de¬ 
scribed it.” 

Sheridan paused and looked at Smith, who sat 
with his head down, looking at the floor. 

“ I said, ‘Yes. I found the key. Is this it? ’ 
And I showed him that skeleton key. He said it 
was. I asked him if he was sure. 

“ ‘ I certainly am,’ he replied. 

Well,’ I said, ‘ that’s exactly what I want 
to know, because that key fits Mr. King’s desk 
and was used to open his desk the day his papers 
were stolen.’ You should have seen him when I 
told him that, Mr. King. He wilted like a lily 
in a hot room. Then he began to bluster, and try 
to bluff it out; but I told him it was no use to lie 
about it and that we had him dead to rights. So 
in the end he confessed everything. He still has 
the papers, and I told him that if he would return 
the papers we would try to get him off as easy as 
possible.” 

Mr. King wheeled in his chair and faced his 
former office boy. “So that’s the kind of boy 
vou are, eh? ” he said. “ It’s too bad Mr. Sheri- 
dan made such a promise to you. You are more 
than a thief. I fully believe that you would have 
allowed my new office boy to go to prison when 
you were the guilty one yourself. I suppose I 
am bound by Mr. Sheridan’s promise. But let 


248 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

me tell you that if you do not come across with 
those papers at once, and if you do not do every¬ 
thing in your power to make amends to Willie, I 
won’t consider that I am bound by it. I’ll do my 
best to see that you get the maximum instead of 
the minimum punishment.” 

Then Mr. King turned to Sheridan. “ Take 
him out of here as quick as you can get him out,” 
he said. “ I’m getting madder every minute.” 

Sheridan hustled his sullen prisoner out of the 
office. No sooner had they crossed the threshold 
than the buzzer rang violently. Willie fairly flew 
to his Chief’s desk. For a moment Mr. King 
was silent. Then he held out his hand. 

“ Willie,” he said, “ shake hands. The boy 
that just left this office is the thief that stole my 
papers. Your honesty is absolutely proved. I 
want to congratulate you. You have borne your¬ 
self splendidly during this ordeal. You will reap 
your reward, for you now have my absolute con¬ 
fidence.” 


CHAPTER XV 


A WATCH ON A DIAMOND SMUGGLER 

*D ELIEVED of the last shadow of suspicion, 
and with the confidence of his superior 
made plainer every day, Willie applied himself 
with increased energy to his tasks. Again it was 
fortunate for Willie that there were no other 
boys in the office. His feeling during the first 
few days after the arrest of Tom Smith was one 
of exultation, of almost irrepressible joy. Pie 
wanted to shout and whistle and express his feel¬ 
ings in noise and physical action. But there was 
no one to share his feelings with him. The office 
force consisted wholly of grown men, mostly of 
staid and sober habits. Of necessity, Willie had 
to repress his spirits in some way. The only out¬ 
let appeared to be in work. So Willie worked 
harder than ever. 

Perhaps it was fortunate for him that the office 
force was so crowded with work. There were 
innumerable tasks that rightfully belonged to the 
office boy. Willie had to run errands, carry pa¬ 
pers, make trips to the Appraisers’ Stores, send 

wireless messages for his Chief, meet visitors at 

249 


250 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


the gate, and do many other things, in the course 
of his regular work. But Willie was quick in his 
movements, and still quicker in thought. He was 
continually studying how to save time, and as a 
result he saved time. So, despite all the regular 
tasks that fell to his lot, he was able to do some 
that could by no possibility have been considered 
part of an office boy’s work. 

At high school he had studied bookkeeping and 
some kinds of clerical work, and now he found 
this training of the greatest use. He volunteered 
to do such clerical work as he had time to do. 
At first, the hard pressed clerks permitted him to 
do a few unimportant tasks. Then, finding that 
he did these correctly and with perfect compre¬ 
hension of the work, they trusted him with more 
important jobs. Before many weeks had gone 
by, Willie had added to his own tasks consider¬ 
able clerical work. 

To be sure, the amount of such work he could 
do was not huge, yet the assistance he gave re¬ 
lieved the clerks greatly. For all this extra work 
Willie received not a cent. But he was richly 
paid, none the less. He won the friendship and 
good-will of every man in the office, his employer 
began to prize him highly, and Willie himself 
gained immensely in knowledge of the work of 
the department. He was laying by a store of 


A WATCH ON A DIAMOND SMUGGLER 251 

knowledge that would some day be of the great¬ 
est use to him. In short, he was doing just what 
a little tree does when it makes roots, or what 
masons do before the carpenters start to erect a 
building. He was making a foundation, and 
making a good one. 

Willie never lost sight of his main object, how¬ 
ever. He was aiming at no clerical job, though 
he gladly did clerical work. Often this work gave 
him an insight into the work he wanted to do, as 
had been the case when Mr. King explained to 
him about the ad valorem tax on luxuries, or 
when Sheridan explained to him about the duties 
on wool and the methods of handling wool. All 
such knowledge helped Willie to comprehend the 
problems before him and to fathom the actions 
of people. 

Indeed, Willie was learning more about human 
nature every day. The theft of Mr. King’s pa¬ 
pers and the arrest of Tom Smith had jolted 
Willie into a keen consciousness of some phases 
of life about which he had previously thought 
little. Now he realized, not only that many peo¬ 
ple are dishonest, but that they are desperately 
wicked, and that to cover up their evil deeds they 
will not hesitate even to commit murder. Day 
by day he heard more about the desperate chances 
men took along the Canadian and Mexican bor- 


252 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


ders to smuggle in opium and rum; for the cus¬ 
toms forces maintained armed guards, with 
powerful armored cars, along those borders. 
And many a running fight in the dark resulted, 
with more than one man injured or killed. And 
closer at home he knew that the rum runners who 
were bringing liquor surreptitiously into New 
York were equally dangerous and desperate. 

More and more frequently Willie was called 
upon to take small seizures to the seizure room. 
This was not dangerous, yet Willie had to keep 
his mind on his business, for if he lost or was 
robbed of any of these articles, he would again 
fall under suspicion of being a thief himself. 
One experience of that sort was enough for 
Willie. So he learned to keep his mind abso¬ 
lutely on what he was doing. Thus he became 
very useful to the special agents when they had 
to convey valuables, like seized jewels, and Willie 
was detailed to go with them. For this happened 
more and more frequently. 

As time passed, too, Mr. King began to use 
Willie for little jobs of shadowing. Often it was 
possible for Willie to trail a person, where a 
grown man could hardly have escaped observa¬ 
tion and discovery. And every experience of 
this sort made Willie more observant, more com¬ 
prehending, more resourceful, and so better 


A WATCH ON A DIAMOND SMUGGLER 253 


fitted to make the most of the opportunities that 
sooner or later would come to him. 

Although Willie still had few friends in New 
York, he was far from being lonely. Long ago 
he had arranged with his friends in Central City 
for wireless communications. Almost every day 
between half-past twelve and one o’clock he had 
a brief chat with some member of the Wireless 
Patrol. Willie regretted that he could not have 
his wireless at his boarding-place, so he could use 
it at night. Yet he knew that was really an idle 
wish, for he did not himself possess a battery 
sufficiently powerful to carry messages to Central 
City, nor had he yet funds enough to buy such a 
battery. So the present arrangement was a good 
one. He could talk to his friends at noon, while 
they were home from school and he was free. 
And his outfit was of great use to Mr. King. 
More and more the Special Agent made use of it, 
and Willie sent despatches for him almost daily. 

Week succeeded week. When Roy or Mr. 
Reynolds was in port, Willie had companionship 
during the evenings. More than once Mr. King 
took Willie to his own home. He had a nephew 
of about Willie’s age, with whom he made him 
acquainted, and gradually Willie’s circle of ac¬ 
quaintanceship widened. Moreover, he found 
where the nearest branch of the public library 


254 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


was. Here he could obtain almost any ordinary 
book that had been published. When the libra¬ 
rian found how keen he was to read and study, 
she willingly got from other branches or from 
the main library the books Willie wanted but 
could not find on her own shelves. So time 
passed faster than Willie ever dreamed could be 
possible. 

One day Mr. King rang the buzzer. As Willie 
stepped into the Chief’s office he saw that the 
Special Agent sat at his desk with a deep frown 
on his face. Before him lay a cablegram that 
Willie had brought to him some days previously. 

“ Willie,” said Mr. King, “ we have reason to 
believe that a gang of smugglers has been get- 
ting diamonds into the country without paying 
the duty. We’ve watched them closely, but we 
have not been able to break up the smuggling. 
This cablegram says that one of their agents has 
sailed for America on the Majestic and 
that-” 

“ Is his name Simonski? ” asked Willie. 

The Special Agent turned and looked at Willie 
keenly. He was continually being surprised at 
Willie’s knowledge. 

“ It is,” he said, “ but how did you know it? ” 

“ I caught a wireless message the first night I 
was in New York,” said Willie, “ and it said to 



A WATCH ON A DIAMOND SMUGGLER 255 


watch for Simonski with diamonds. I remem¬ 
bered the name.” 

“ But you had no wireless outfit then—at least, 
it wasn’t set up.” ' 

“ I was listening in with my friend Roy Mercer 
in the wireless cabin of the Lycoming. He told 
me what the message likely meant.” 

“ Well, you’ve got a good memory. That’s 
sure. This fellow’s name is Simonski, and it’s 
the same Simonski that wireless was about. He 
makes several trips abroad a year, and we feel 
sure that he buys precious stones, but so far we 
have not been able to get him. We’ve searched 
him to the hide, too. We’ve had his baggage ex¬ 
amined surreptitiously and our most expert 
searchers have not found anything dutiable. The 
regular uniformed customs inspectors know all 
about him. They have already been instructed 
to examine him closely. But I want to have him 
under observation by secret agents, too. All my 
agents are on special assignments and I don’t 
want to call any of them in. I was expecting to 
send Easterly up to meet this ship, but a very 
pressing case came up this morning and I had to 
send him away. There isn’t a soul I can send 
who has had any experience in this sort of work 
except yourself. Do you think you could help 
any?” 


256 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ Do you mean it? ” cried Willie, his eyes shin¬ 
ing. “ Do you want me to act as a special agent 
and watch Simonski? ” 

“ I can’t say I want you to,” laughed Mr. 
King. “ I really want Easterly to. But it’s you 
or nobody. You’ve done some pretty good work 
since you came to New York, but you won’t be 
dealing with any rough wool smugglers this time. 
This fellow is a slick article. If he’s smuggling, 
as we believe he is, he’s the slickest article we have 
had to deal with in months. I expect it will not 
do the least bit of good to send you to the pier, 
yet it is you or nobody. Do you want to go? ” 

“Do I?” cried Willie. “Just give me the 
chance and see.” 

“ Very well, then, you meet the Majestic . Go 
down to Quarantine with the inspectors and 
board the boat. I’ll give you a letter to the 
proper authorities. You can be a cabin boy, and 
in that way may get a good chance to observe 
this fellow Simonski. Don’t pay any attention 
to anything else. This diamond smuggling has 
got to be broken up. I won’t be a bit disap¬ 
pointed if you don’t learn a thing. But if you 
should find out something, it will be a great 
achievement for you. I’ll write that note for you 
at once.” 


CHAPTER XVI 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 

H ARDLY had the great ship Majestic 
dropped anchor at Quarantine before a 
customs boat drew up alongside of her. A ladder 
was lowered, and up the ladder scrambled the 
boarding party. This consisted of several cus¬ 
toms men and Willie. The instant Willie 
reached the deck, he scurried into the cabin. He 
did not want to be seen by any more people than 
he could help. He presented his letter to one of 
the ship’s officers. Immediately he was hustled 
into the stewards’ quarters and there he was out¬ 
fitted like a cabin boy. 

But Willie hardly needed to take such pre¬ 
cautions to escape observation. The passengers 
were in a flutter of excitement. The usual prep¬ 
arations for debarking were afoot. Many per¬ 
sons were bustling about saying farewell to ac¬ 
quaintances. Eveiywhere there was great ac¬ 
tivity in the staterooms. Many persons were 

packing hand-bags. Some were rolling up 

257 


258 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


steamer rugs and capes. Others were folding 
outer coats or pulling them on. Canes, um¬ 
brellas, shoes, veils, hats, and innumerable other 
objects of apparel were being collected, so that 
their owners could debark promptly. No one had 
time even to notice cabin boys. 

Those who had not filled out the official papers 
on which they were to make their customs’ dec¬ 
larations were now working frantically to get 
these declarations completed. An exemption of 
$100 was allowed each traveler. He might bring 
in dutiable goods to that amount. Goods in ex¬ 
cess of that sum had to pay the full duty. Al¬ 
ways there was the temptation, when making out 
these declarations, to undervalue purchases. 

Had these travelers known that awaiting them 
on the piers were expert appraisers of the Cus¬ 
toms Department, who could tell almost to a cent 
what things had probably cost, their sense of 
honesty might have been mightily strengthened. 
But the temptation to avoid the payment of duty 
often proved too strong, and many articles were 
purposely undervalued in the customs declara¬ 
tions. As Mr. King had said, many persons of 
respectability and even of prominence forgot 
their consciences when they tried to come ashore 
with dutiable goods. So they misrepresented the 
value of their purchases. 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 259 

Up to the time these declarations were signed, 
misstatements could be corrected and trouble 
avoided. But once a person had attached his sig¬ 
nature to his declaration, any discrepancies there¬ 
after discovered in his report might render him 
liable for smuggling. Up to the time he signed 
his declaration, a passenger trying to get duti¬ 
able goods in free was merely planning to commit 
an illegal act. Once he had signed, he had com¬ 
mitted that illegal act. So the signing was the 
crucial point; and many and many an intending 
smuggler has betrayed himself by nervousness at 
this point. Indeed, many and many a person at¬ 
tempting to smuggle goods ashore has been 
caught simply because of his general nervousness. 
Had Easterly been here, that is what he would 
have been watching for—people who were ill at 
ease, and particularly would he have been watch¬ 
ing Simonski. 

Willie had been given the number of Simon- 
ski’s stateroom. He hardly believed he would 
find the man there, for it was not likely he had 
much baggage. Practically everybody not en¬ 
gaged in packing baggage was on deck, getting 
a welcome view of old New York again. Willie 
suspected Simonski would be there, too. His 
guess proved to be correct. 

Willie went straight to Simonski’s stateroom, 



260 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


and after listening intently at his door for a mo¬ 
ment, knocked on it. There was no response. 
Willie turned the door-knob and pushed. The 
door opened. A man’s coat lay on the bed. 
Close beside the bed was a leather hand-bag. In 
a corner stood an umbrella. Evidently the oc¬ 
cupant had everything prepared for a quick de¬ 
barkation. That didn’t prove anything, of 
course, for every home comer was eager to get 
ashore. Yet the quicker one could have his lug¬ 
gage examined, the better was his chance of cov¬ 
ering up any little irregularities. With such a 
great crowd of passengers to handle, the inspec¬ 
tors would do their work hastily. Willie fairly 
itched to open the bag, but he knew it would be 
dangerous to touch anything. Simonski might 
return and catch him in the act. Then his use¬ 
fulness would be ended. So he withdrew from 
the room and shut the door. He had not touched 
a thing. He did not believe Simonski could have 
any possible way to tell whether or not any one 
had entered his room. He wondered if the reason 
Simonski had left his door unlocked was to give 
an investigator a chance to go through his bag¬ 
gage. A clever rogue might well do such a 
thing. 

Willie made his way forward, in search of 
Simonski. The ship was as busy as a beehive. 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 261 

Passengers were hastening back and forth along 
the corridors. Stewards and cabin boys were as¬ 
sisting with the final packing, and carrying lug¬ 
gage forward toward the gangway. Friends 
were calling to one another in loud tones or gath¬ 
ered in groups, chatting busily. Forward, both 
within the ship and on the decks, hundreds of 
passengers were massed. 

Willie moved about through the throng, look¬ 
ing for Simonski. Mr. King had given him a 
very clear description of the man, and Willie had 
no difficulty in recognizing him when at last he 
found him. At least, he saw a man who answered 
the description exactly. 

If Willie had hunted a week to find a word to 
describe the man, he could not have found one 
that better described Simonski than the Chiefs 
term, “ slick.’’ It fitted the man in every par¬ 
ticular. He had black, piercing eyes. His hair 
was carefully cut and slicked down as though it 
had been oiled and brushed tight to his scalp. He 
had had the cleanest of clean shaves. His hands 
were spotlessly white, and his nails were carefully 
manicured and highly polished. An enormous 
diamond sparkled on one finger. His clothes 
were loud. He wore a black and white checked 
suit, with a white edging about the vest, and a 
flaming purple tie, which was ornamented with 




2G2 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


another flashing diamond. A black, curved 
handled cane hung from the crook of his left 
arm. 

But what instantly riveted Willie’s attention 
was the expression on the man’s face. The shin¬ 
ing eyes gave an impression of almost uncanny 
penetration. The nose was of good size, and 
slightly hooked. Coupled with the mouth, which 
was as straight as a slit and as tight as a steel 
trap, it indicated unusual force of character. 
The mouth itself was as hard as the diamond that 
glittered beneath it. It was pitiless. Everything 
about the man’s make-up indicated a cold, hard, 
selfish, unscrupulous, and able nature. As Willie 
moved about in the throng, studying the man’s 
face, now from one point and now from another, 
he became more and more certain that the man 
was not only utterly unscrupulous, but also dar¬ 
ing to a high degree and clever beyond belief. 

With every moment the excitement on the boat 
increased. The detention at Quarantine had been 
brief, and the great ship was now close to her 
pier. Every one was making a final collection of 
wraps and hand baggage and saying good-bye to 
shipmates. Stewards and cabin boys were bus¬ 
tling about more busily than ever, with bags, suit 
cases and other hand luggage. As the ship drew 
close to the pier, Simonski pushed his way 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 263 


roughly toward the gangway. A cabin boy fol¬ 
lowed hard on his heels with his umbrella and 
bag. While they waited for the gangplank to be 
swung into place, Simonski drew forth a huge 
roll of bills, and peeling two of them from the 
outside of the roll, ostentatiously handed them to 
the lad with the bag. Evidently he had used his 
money to good effect in other quarters as well, 
for among the few trunks that had been hoisted 
to the deck, for quick delivery ashore, was a 
steamer trunk that Simonski now pointed out to 
the cabin boy. It bore a label marked with the 
letter S. 

“ You stick close to that trunk,” said Simonski. 
“ I’ll get an inspector at once and bring him to 
the trunk. I want to get my stuff passed as 
quickly as possible. I don’t want to have to 
hunt for you and my bag when I’m ready to go. 
Understand? ” 

Simonski shoved his way closer to the gang¬ 
way, and was one of the very first persons to set 
foot on the pier. He went directly to the line of 
inspectors waiting at their desks. His paper 
was taken by an inspector, who glanced at the 
paper and then at Simonski. Willie was close 
by. He saw by the inspector’s look that he knew 
he had before him the man they had been warned 
to watch. The inspector’s lips set hard. Willie 



264 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


fancied he saw an answering glitter in the eyes 
of Simonski. But the traveler was as cool as 
ice. 

44 Everything is correct on this declaration, is 
it? ” asked the inspector. 

“ Absolutely,” replied Simonski. 

“ Then sign here,” said the inspector, indicat¬ 
ing the place for the signature. 

Simonski’s hand was as steady as Gibraltar as 
he slowly and carefully put his signature to the 
paper. 

“We’ll have a look at your baggage,” said the 
inspector, leading the way to the S section, where 
Simonski’s trunk and the faithful cabin boy were 
waiting. 

Simonski produced his keys and dropped to 
one knee, to open the trunk. The cabin boy 
reached out his hand, to relieve Simonski of his 
cane, but the latter laid it on the pier beside his 
foot. He unlocked the trunk, picked up his cane, 
and rose to his feet. 

“ Go to it,” he said. “ The quicker the better. 
I’m in a hurrv.” 

The inspector opened the trunk wide. He 
placed the customs declaration where he could 
consult it, and began a systematic examination of 
the contents of the trunk. Not an article in the 
trunk went unexamined. As soon as he had ex- 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 265 

amined an object, he piled it on its predecessors 
on the pier floor. The owner frowned. 

“You might think I was trying to smuggle 
something in, the way you go through that 
trunk,” he said testily. 

“ Perhaps I do think so,” said the inspector. 

“ Well, satisfy yourself,” said Simonski, in a 
sarcastic tone. 

The inspector made no reply, but continued his 
search. He questioned Simonski from time to 
time as to when and where he got this or that 
article. He continued the search until the trunk 
was entirely empty. Everything he had taken 
out of the trunk he had examined in the closest 
possible manner, feeling every inch of a garment, 
opening pockets, unfolding handkerchiefs, and 
leaving unsearched absolutely nothing that could 
contain even so small a thing as a diamond. 

All the while Willie moved about in the crowd, 
that was now dense, but always with his eyes on 
Simonski and the inspector. Now the latter be¬ 
gan an examination of the trunk itself. He felt 
every inch of its smooth surface. He hunted for 
places where the lining might have been ripped. 
He thumped the boards to see if they were solid. 
He even whipped out a little rule and measured 
the trunk inside and out to make sure it had no 
false bottom or sides. But the trunk appeared to 


266 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


be flawless. All the while Simonski stood beside 
the inspector, as cool as ice. When the search 
was over, the inspector motioned to him to repack 
his trunk. Simonski laid his cane on the pier, 
close beside the trunk, and put the things back 
in place. Then he locked the trunk, picked up his 
cane, and coolly hooked it over his arm again. 

“ Let’s see that bag,” demanded the inspector. 

“ Not satisfied yet? ” said Simonski in appar¬ 
ent surprise. “ All right. Hand it to him, boy.” 

The cabin boy passed over the bag. The in¬ 
spector searched it with the same thoroughness 
he had used in examining the trunk. Nothing 
came of the examination. 

“ Lot of good it did you, didn’t it? ” remarked 
the traveler, with sarcasm. 

Then, turning to, the cabin boy, he said, “ We’ll 
be moving now. Get a taxi for me.” 

“Not so fast,” said the inspector. “ I’m not 
done yet. We have reason to think you have 
something dutiable with you. If it isn’t in your 
baggage, it may be on your person. We’ll have 
to search you.” 

“ Very well. Help yourself. Here are my 
pockets.” And he held up his arms so the in¬ 
spector could delve into his coat. 

“ We don’t examine suspects that way,” said 
the inspector. “ You’ll have to come with me.” 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 267 

Simonski, plainly annoyed, turned to give 
some directions to the cabin boy. The latter, 
wishing to earn an even larger fee if possible, 
reached for the cane. “ I’ll keep it,” he said, 
“ until you get back.” 

Simonski apparently did not hear him, for he 
turned on his heel and walked away, with his cane 
still swinging jauntily on his arm. 

Willie was in a quandary. * He thought Simon¬ 
ski would be taken to an office on the pier and 
searched. He didn’t know whether he himself 
would be allowed in the place unless he told who 
he was. That he did not want to do. He said 
nothing but walked along almost abreast of the 
inspector. To his surprise, the latter went 
aboard the ship, preceded by Simonski. Willie 
followed hard on their heels. An officer was near 
the gangway. 

“ I want a room to search a suspect,” said the 
inspector. 

“ Use one of these staterooms,” said the officer, 
pointing along the deck. “ They’re all empty 
now.” 

The inspector and his prisoner passed into the 
ship. Willie followed. At the first stateroom 
the inspector threw open the door and Simonski 
entered. The inspector noticed Willie, who had 
followed close behind them. 


268 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ I wish you’d step in here a moment,” he said. 
“ I might need help.” 

Willie entered the stateroom and elosed the 
door. “ Lock it,” said the inspector. Willie 
turned the key. 

“ Now get your duds off,” said the inspector 
to Simonski. 

The traveler put his cane in the bunk, sat down 
on the front edge of the bunk, and began to un¬ 
dress. With absolute thoroughness the inspector 
examined every stitch the man handed him. He 
pressed every inch of cloth between his finger 
and his thumb, but nothing larger than a grain of 
dust could be felt. The most careful search 
failed to reveal a single thing that seemed sus¬ 
picious. 

“ Put your clothes on,” said the inspector. 
Then he stepped out in the corridor, followed by 
Willie. The latter hesitated a moment, then told 
the inspector who he was. 

“ I knew who you were,” said the inspector. 

Willie gasped with surprise. “ How did you 
know? ” he asked. 

“ Mr. King telephoned up about you so you 
wouldn’t be ordered off the pier. When I saw a 
cabin boy hanging around while I was going 
through that bird’s stuff, I knew well enough 
who you were.” 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 269 


“ What are we going to do about Simonski? ” 
inquired Willie. 

“ Nothing. Let him go. We haven’t a thing 
on whieh we can hold him. Just the same I be¬ 
lieve he has smuggled some stuff through in 
some way.” 

Willie went to a near-by stateroom and sat 
down. He felt certain the man he had been 
watching was a smuggler. Something seemed to 
tell him that despite the search the man had 
diamonds. Where could he possibly have them 
hidden? 

Willie closed his eyes and thought. In his 
mind he reviewed every movement he had made 
since Willie first saw him. That wonderful, 
photographic quality of mind stood him in good 
stead. He could see Simonski’s every move. He 
thought of him as he had first seen him, imme¬ 
diately after he, Willie, had peeped at Simonski’s 
baggage in his stateroom. He could see the fel¬ 
low plainly, moving about the ship, with his little 
cane swinging jauntily from his arm. He saw 
him unlocking his trunk, with the cane lying on 
the pier before him. He saw him once more, the 
cane at his feet, repacking the trunk. Again he 
visualized him, as he turned away to go to the 
ship to be searched, apparently too indignant to 
hear the cabin boy’s proffer to relieve him of his 


270 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


cane. Then he saw the search—the cane laid 
carefully in the back of the bunk, and the man 
pulling off his shoes, as he sat in front of it. It 
was queer how that cane seemed to stick out in 
every picture. 

Suddenly Willie leaped to his feet. “ The 
diamonds are in the cane,” he cried. “ That’s 
why he was so careful of it. He didn’t care a 
rap about anything else. But he guarded that 
cane like grim death.” 

He darted out of the stateroom. The inspector 
and Simonski were just disappearing down the 
corridor. 

“ Hold that man,” he cried. “ Don’t let him 
get off the ship. I know where his diamonds 
are.” 

Both men turned sharp about. “ Hold on a 
moment,” said the inspector to Simonski. 

“ I am tired of this monkey business,” said 
Simonski. “ You’ve searched me. There’s noth¬ 
ing dutiable on me. You have no right to keep 
me any longer.” And he turned and hurried to¬ 
ward the gangway. A sudden anger seemed to 
take possession of him. 

“ Stop him!” cried Willie. “ The diamonds 
are in his cane.” 

The inspector leaped to the side of Simonski. 
“ Stop! ” he said. 


WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN 271 

“ Don’t you touch me,” rejoined Simonski. 
His eyes glittered like a snake’s. 

The inspector grabbed him. Simonski tried to 
wrench loose. They clutched each other sav¬ 
agely. The little cane was caught between their 
swaying bodies. Suddenly it broke in half with 
a snap like a pistol. Then the pieces clattered to 
the floor. Willie rushed forward and picked 
them up. The cane was hollow. Something 
white showed within it. Willie thrust a match 
down into the hollow and worked the white thing 
out. It was cotton. Wrapped within it, in a 
long, thin roll, was diamond after diamond. 


CHAPTER XVII 


AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS 

W HEN Willie reported to his Chief, that 
individual dropped his work and leaned 
back in his chair. He was smiling* with satisfac¬ 
tion. 

“ Well, Willie,” he said, “ they telephoned 
down that they have at last landed that fellow 
Simonski, and that you had a great hand in it. 
Tell me what happened.” 

Willie told the story in detail. 

“ He’s clever all right,” said the Special Agent. 
“We had almost come to the conclusion that he 
couldn’t be carrying the gems himself, but must 
be employing a carrier whom we would not sus¬ 
pect. You see, we have secretly examined his 
stuff on various occasions. We’ve had secret 
agents traveling on the boat with him. We’ve 
tested his cane and his umbrella. We’ve emptied 
his tube of tooth paste. We’ve even surrepti¬ 
tiously removed the heels of his shoes while he was 
asleep. We’ve cut open his soap. We’ve looked 
in every place we could think of. That’s prob¬ 
ably why the inspector paid no attention to Si- 

monski’s cane. His canes have been under 

272 


AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS 273 

scrutiny before. But they seemed to be all 
right.” 

“ So did this one,” said Willie. “ If it had not 
been broken, we should probably never have 
found the diamonds. The inspector thinks it was 
made especially for this trip. It was no patent 
cane that you could open and put together again. 
You’d have had to chop this cane to get it apart. 
It had been bored out for a distance lengthwise, 
from the bottom up. But the diameter of the 
hole was small. The diamonds, with the thinnest 
of cotton wrappers, could just be stuffed into it. 
The end of the opening flared, like the sides of 
a long, slender cone. A piece of wood had been 
fashioned to fit this opening exactly, and the 
bottom of this plug was the ferule of the cane. 
The plug was glued in tight. It was as solid as 
veneering on fine furniture. I believe it could 
never have been pulled out. There wasn’t the 
slightest mark or crack to show that the cane was 
ever plugged. It appeared perfectly solid. And 
it was so slick and fresh that it must have been 
newly made.” 

“ Likely you are correct. He probably got a 
new cane on each trip. Doubtless it was done by 
expert workmen at considerable cost. He could 
afford to, according to what the inspectors tele¬ 
phoned me about the value of the diamonds 


274 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


seized. But I guess Simonski won’t be buying 
any more canes soon. He’ll get a prison sentence 
out of this. Sheridan told me you were sharp, 
but when I sent you to the Majestic I didn’t 
think that you would really accomplish any¬ 
thing.” 

“ It was mostly luck,” said Willie. “ If the 
cane had not broken, I doubt if we should have 
found the diamonds. You never saw a nicer 
piece of work in your life than that cane.” 

“ Well, luck or no luck, we got Simonski, and 
that’s the thing we wanted. The department is 
immensely pleased.” 

The department was no more pleased than 
Willie was. He was entirely in earnest when he 
said that the discovery of the diamonds was due 
to luck, for, had not Simonski momentarily lost 
his self-control and the cane been broken, it is 
doubtful if the gems would have been found. 
None the less, the seizure helped Willie greatly. 

Among other things, it helped his bank ac¬ 
count. Rather, it gave him one. For his pay 
was increased and he was now able to save a little 
each week. It also put him on an even better 
footing with Mr. King, though the Special Agent 
by this time had come to think very highly of 
Willie. 

After the exciting days Willie had been pass- 


AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS 275 

ing through, life now seemed very tame. It was 
as though Willie, after a tempestuous voyage 
through rapids and rough seas, had suddenly 
sailed into a placid bit of backwater, where there 
was no current at all and not wind enough even 
to stir the surface. Day followed day and week 
followed week as quietly as time had gone by 
back in Central City. Like any active lad, Willie 
loved excitement, and he began almost to chafe 
under the monotony. For there was little to do 
besides routine work. Long ago Willie had be¬ 
come familiar with these routine tasks, and there 
was no longer even the interest of novelty attach¬ 
ing to them. 

In one way Willie’s work altered slightly. 
More and more the chief had to use Willie for 
wireless communication. This was due to the in¬ 
creasing activities of rum runners. The “ dry 
Navy ” of the regular prohibition enforcement 
officers consisted of submarine chasers that had 
been built during the war. These were low, 
speedy craft, about one hundred and ten feet 
long, with a speed of twenty knots an hour. 
Every one of these boats was equipped with a 
complete sending and receiving apparatus of the 
most efficient type, with both spark and continu¬ 
ous wave transmitters and receivers, and operated 
by currents of 110 volts. Operators were on duty 


276 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


aboard the various units of the fleet at all hours, 
in order that there might be no delay in receiving 
orders, or in dashing off after a rum smuggling 
vessel. 

But, although these vessels of the dry Navy 
were so completely equipped in this respect, they 
were sadly lacking in another. Their crews were 
civilian forces who were practically without au¬ 
thority on the water. Actually, it was always 
necessary for an officer of the customs depart¬ 
ment to sail with this fleet, since the customs 
forces have practically unlimited authority of 
hail, search, and seizure. Whenever the Special 
Agent had sound information as to probable vio¬ 
lations of the prohibition law, this fleet was at his 
disposal. And as information came to him fre¬ 
quently, there was much need to communicate 
with the different vessels of the fleet. 

In addition to these craft, there were several 
other boats that were used for chasing rum run¬ 
ners. These craft were part of the outfit of the 
Collector of the Port of New York. Among 
them was a boat, called the Surveyor, used espe¬ 
cially to convey searching squads from point to 
point and to go down the Bay after rum runners. 
With all these craft at his command, the Special 
Agent had a considerable fleet of fast power 
boats. 


AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS 277 

For a time Uncle Sam searched rum laden 
boats far out on the high seas, and rum runners 
were rather cautious. But when other nations 
protested against such search beyond the three- 
mile limit, the practice was discontinued. At 
once whiskey smugglers grew active. Boats 
came from Bermuda, the Bahama Islands, Cuba, 
and other West Indian ports, laden with drink. 
As long as they remained more than three miles 
from shore, Uncle Sam could not touch them. 
So these ships dropped anchor just outside the 
danger zone and there disposed of their cargoes 
to rum runners in fast power boats. As this 
practice increased, the little fleet of law enforce¬ 
ment vessels grew busier and busier, and Willie 
was increasingly useful in communicating with 
them by wireless. 

Encouraged by the success of individual ves¬ 
sels in disposing of their cargoes of booze, whis¬ 
key ships began to come in greater numbers. 
One day the marine observers at Atlantic High¬ 
lands and Sandy Hook sighted a great fleet of 
vessels approaching. Two steamships and four¬ 
teen schooners dropped anchor near the Ambrose 
channel and a little east of the Ambrose light¬ 
ship, just beyond the three-mile limit. The 
steamer was apparently a tanker. The sailing 
ships appeared to be Ashing smacks that had been 


278 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


converted into rum runners. The flotilla was a 
rum fleet from the Bahama Islands. 

At once a swarm of small power boats put off 
from shore to meet them. The prohibition forces 
were caught napping*. In a few hours’ time thou¬ 
sands of cases of forbidden intoxicants could be 
carried ashore. There was not a prohibition boat 
about, to enforce the law. 

The instant word came to Mr. King from the 
marine observers, he rang* his buzzer for Willie. 
“ Get into touch with our boats,” he directed, 
“ and order them to prepare for instant action. 
Have the Surveyor come to the Battery landing* 
for me. I’m going to take personal charge of this 
expedition. We’re going to stop this rum run¬ 
ning. These smugglers are a desperate bunch. 
We’ll have to meet them on their own grounds. 
Desperate diseases require desperate remedies.” 

Willie hastened to his wireless. Ship after 
ship answered his signals, replying that they were 
ready for an instant dash after the smugglers. 
But from the Surveyor he could get no answer 
at all.' Again and again he flashed out her signal. 
Then he called another of the Collector’s boats, 
to see if he could learn what was wrong* with the 
Surveyor . The answer came back that her oper¬ 
ator had suddenly been taken ill and had gone 
to the hospital. The relief man was ashore. 


AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS 279 

There was no one on the Surveyor to operate the 
wireless. 

Willie reported this to his Chief. For a mo¬ 
ment Mr. King considered the situation. 
“ There’s only one thing we can do, Willie,” he 
said. “ You’ll have to go along and operate the 
Surveyor's wireless. I can’t direct a fleet without 
a wireless operator.” 

Willie could scarcely restrain himself for joy. 
So far he had had no end of good luck in being 
allowed to take a hand in operations against 
smugglers, but this was the greatest good fortune 
yet. To have a part in actually running down 
smugglers on the seas was a piece of luck too 
good to be true. Willie could hardly believe his 
ears. He wanted to give a war whoop, but some¬ 
how he restrained himself, and answered quietly, 
“ I’m ready now.” But his heart was beating 
wildly with excitement. 

“ Get your overcoat and cap and the heaviest 
wraps you can find,” said Mr. King. “ It’s al¬ 
ready late in the day. It will be dark long before 
we can get near that rum fleet. And you’ll 
freeze to death if you aren’t warmly clothed.” 

In a second everything was astir in the office. 
All the secret agents in the building were ordered 
aboard the patrol fleet. Orders were issued to 
clerks and stenographers. Revolvers were in- 


280 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


spected and loaded. Fresh ammunition was 
tucked into coat pockets. Caps, gloves, over¬ 
coats, and outer footwear were produced and 
pulled on. And in a very few minutes the little 
party was hurrying across Battery Park to hoard 
the Surveyor . Willie hustled along beside his 
friend Easterly. But the pace was too rapid to 
permit conversation. In fact, Willie fairly had 
to run to keep pace with his longer legged com¬ 
panions. The booze forces had stolen a march 
on the enforcers of the law and there was not a 
second to lose. 

The Surveyor was already at the boat landing. 
A member of the crew stood on the wharf, look¬ 
ing for the party. The Special Agent leaped 
aboard, followed by his little company. The 
sailor cast off the line that held the Surveyor, the 
engine began to roar, and the little craft drew 
quickly away from the landing. Not many hun¬ 
dred vards offshore the sub chasers and the other 
craft of the little fleet were gathered. Already 
customs agents had boarded them and they were 
idling on the tide, like restive horses champing 
their bits, eager to be off. The Surveyor headed 
directly for this flotilla. 

“ I suppose those sub chasers are the fastest 
units of our fleet,” said Mr. King to the captain 
of the Surveyor . 


AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS 281 

“ Much the fastest, sir,” said that officer. 

“ And the Collector’s boats are about of one 
speed, I suppose.” 

“Just about. We can run together very 
nicely, sir.” 

The Special Agent turned to Willie. “ Tell 
those sub chasers to make all speed possible,” he 
said, “ surround the rum fleet, and try to cut off 
any small boats they can. Tell them they can go 
the limit if it is necessary. Be sure they have 
rifles and ammunition.” 

Willie entered the little cabin and sat down 
at the wireless instrument. He strapped on his 
headpiece, threw over his switch, and sent the 
fleet call flashing abroad. But before he followed 
with a single order, he called out to Mr. King: 

“ What about the cipher? I don’t know it, 
though I know you use one.” 

“ Never mind the cipher. Go on and give the 
orders in English. And make it plain that we 
have gams aboard and will use them if it is neces- 
sarv. If these rum runners want to listen in, 
we’ll give them something worth listening to.” 

Willie swung back to his instrument. He had 
had an instant response from each unit of the 
fleet. “ All sub chasers,” he flashed out, “ put to 
sea at top speed. Surround the rum fleet. Try 
to intercept any power boats still taking cargo 


282 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

or not yet within reach of shore. Use whatever 
force is necessary. Load your rifles and use them 
if need be. Take every possible chance to cap¬ 
ture the runners.” 

From the sub chasers came flashing acknowl¬ 
edgments of the order, while instantly a mighty 
roar of powerful motors went up and the sub 
chasers shot forward through the dark waters of 
the harbor like the long, lean, nautical grey¬ 
hounds thev were. 

“ Call the Collector’s boats,” said Mr. King, 

“ and tell them to stay together. The sub chasers 

will scare all the rum runners away from the rum 

fleet, long before we could get near. Most of 

these fellows will make for the Jersey shore. 

We haven’t the remotest chance of intercepting 

them. Even the sub chasers couldn’t catch manv 

•> 

of them. But some of them will try to make a 
get-away by heading directly for the harbor here. 
They’ll wait until the sub chasers are through the 
Narrows and then make a dash from beyond the 
three-mile limit. Our part of the job will be to 
intercept them. We’ll go through the Narrows 
and cruise back and forth across the harbor en¬ 
trance. It will be a mighty clever boatman that 
can get by us unseen.” 

Once more Willie threw over his switch and 
sent a call flashing through the air. “ Keep pace 


AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS 283 


with the Surveyor ’’ he called, when he had gotten 
responses from the other craft. “ Proceed 
through the Narrows, and take up patrol stations 
across harbor entrance. Don’t let anything get 
by you. If necessary, shoot. If they fire back, 
shoot to kill.” 


i 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

LREADY dusk was at hand. Though it 



was about the hour for the sun to set, no 
sign of that glowing orb was visible in the sky. 
Dark clouds obscured the heavens. Columns of 
smoke were pouring skyward from hundreds of 
tall stacks along the shores of the Bay. And this 
smoke, driven down again by the heavy atmos¬ 
phere, added to the general murkiness. A uni¬ 
form dull, dark, gray blanket of cloud hung low 
over the harbor. 

Beneath, the waters of the Bay reflected this 
dull, dark gray. The steel-colored hulls of the 
sub chasers were hardly distinguishable, even at a 
few hundred yards, from the heaving gray waves. 
The air was raw with the dampness of an ap¬ 
proaching storm. The wind soughed ominously. 
Somewhere out on the great ocean, a swirling 
storm was sweeping landward. Night was close 
at hand. When darkness came, it would be as 
the darkness of Egypt—dense, impenetrable, al¬ 
most tangible. It was indeed a good night for 
rum runners. 


284 



285 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

But the darkness had no terrors for the little 
party in the Surveyor. Rather they welcomed it. 
The darkness would allow them to creep the 
closer to their victims. Once they were near at 
hand, the powerful little searchlight of the Sur¬ 
veyor would dispel the darkness. Fog alone 
could cloak its beams. They would hope that fog 
would not form. If it did, they could only trust 
to luck. 

On went the little fleet. Already the sub 
chasers were lost to sight, though the roar of 
their motors was still audible. In close forma¬ 
tion the boats of the Collector’s squadron pushed 
on down the Bay. On their right the flaming 
torch of Liberty flashed high above the murky 
waters. Far on the western horizon myriads of 
twinkling lights shone along the Jersey shore. 
Behind them rose the dream city of Manhattan. 
From a million windows, reaching from the 
ground seemingly into the clouds themselves, 
flashed countless electric lights. Nowhere else in 
all the world was there a sight like it. Willie al¬ 
most forgot himself and the adventure on which 
he was bound, as he gazed at the glowing towers 
of New York. When he swept his eyes farther 
around the circle, he saw the lights along the 
Brooklyn shore, reaching far behind and stretch¬ 
ing far ahead of the little fleet. The great Bay, 


286 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


miles in diameter, was like an ebony bowl rimmed 
with glittering lights. 

Steadily the little fleet pushed forward, tossed 
by the waving waters. The air was rent by the 
shrieking whistles of many vessels. All about 
them ships were moving. Behind them ferry¬ 
boats were shuttling baek and forth from Jersey 
to the Manhattan shore. From Staten Island to 
the Battery, six miles as the crow flies, the huge 
municipal ferries were plowing the waves. 
Broad belts of light shone from their illumined 
decks, carpeting the waters with gold as the full 
moon might have done on a fair night. Coast¬ 
wise steamers for New England ports were 
rounding the end of Manhattan, for their nightly 
run up the East River and the Sound. Tugs 
were bustling busily about, some with strings of 
barges atow, some side by side with huge lighters. 
In that broad arm of the Bav between Robbin’s 
Reef Light and the torch of Liberty were moored 
numbers of tramp steamers, each with its lights 
aloft. While toward Brooklyn and the Bush 
terminal, sailing ships rode at anchor, their lan¬ 
terns swaying aloft as the boats rocked gently 
with the waves. 

Fairylike, indeed, was the scene, as every mo¬ 
ment drew the curtain of darkness lower, and 
brightened the gleam of glowing lights. Yet 


287 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

wickedness lurked beneath those lights, and crime 
all too often rode the waves of this magic harbor. 
No fairy business was this before them, and no 
one understood that fact better than Willie did. 
Not for nothing had he listened to Larsen and his 
fellow smugglers on the pier, or watched them in 
their South Street den. He knew them for ex¬ 
actly what they were—reckless, wayward, des¬ 
perate members of society, who observed the law 
only when it suited them or because they had to. 
Indeed this was no fairy business he was engaged 
in, but a desperate hunt for desperate men. 

On went the little fleet. Soon the chugging 
craft was abreast of Robbin’s Reef. Its warn¬ 
ing gleam flashed bright across the waves. Be¬ 
yond that light rose the towering shores of Staten 
Island, now made dim and indistinct by the dusk, 
the street lights climbing upward from the ferry 
along the sloping roads. Farther down the island 
shone the lights of Quarantine. Beyond was 
darkness—the great, abysmal darkness of the un¬ 
tamed sea. And somewhere out in that darkness 
rode men in motor-boats—desperate men they 
were seeking to catch. 

Night was upon them before the little fleet had 
passed the forts that guard the Narrows. Where 
the sub chasers were they had no idea. Some¬ 
where out in the dark void before them, the fleet 



288 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


of steel-gray power boats was rushing through 
the night, with lights doused, in search of their 
prey. Through the Narrows went the Surveyor 
at top speed, with her companion boats about her. 
On and on they pressed, alert for every sight and 
sound of incoming craft. But no boats passed 
them save one or two large steamers, the waves 
from which set the little patrol boats to dancing 
merrily. 

When they had gone as far as the chief deemed 
wise, Willie flashed out an order. “ Take patrol 
stations and keep moving.” 

Across the narrow channel the little fleet 
spread out. Back and forth, each in its allotted 
portion of the river, the little craft moved slowly. 
A few hundred yards to the right they drove, 
then turned and patrolled for an equal distance 
to the left. Back and forth, back and forth, like 
sentries pacing their beats, the customs craft 
crept through the murky night. But so dense 
was the darkness that no one of them was visible 
to any of its companions. For not a light shone 
aboard the little fleet. 

Back and forth, back and forth, went the 
watching vessels. Minutes followed minutes and 
became hours. The darkness increased to abso¬ 
lute blackness. Far off, the lights of Manhattan 
began to disappear, winking out one by one. 


289 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

Night settled down over the heaving waters. 
The soughing of the wind increased. From sea¬ 
ward came a dull moaning sound. The waves 
were getting up. The storm was coming on 
apace. Ships were seeking refuge from it, and 
more than one goodly vessel came plunging in 
from the sea. But the watching patrol boats 
gave them a wide berth and themselves went un¬ 
detected. Always there was a possibility that 
some entering ship might flash a wireless warn¬ 
ing back through the darkness. 

Back and forth, back and forth, rode the little 
patrol craft. And ever Willie sat at his instru¬ 
ment, his earpiece strapped to his head, listening 
for any sound in the night that would help the 
little fleet locate its prey. Now he tuned into this 
wave-length, now to that. He heard a myriad 
voices in the air, but for a long time none that 
was of use to him. Through the heavy atmos¬ 
phere electric signals were flashing as thick as 
raindrops in a tropic storm. Far out on the ocean 
he heard steamships talking to one another, their 
operators discussing the storm that was raging 
there. Commercial lines were shooting messages 
through the air as fast as fingers could operate 
electric keys. Newspaper despatches were bor¬ 
ing through the clouds. Amateurs by the hun¬ 
dreds were filling the ether with electric currents. 


290 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


More and more, as Willie listened to the babel, 
he thought of rain—horizontal rain, a rain of 
electric sparks that flew level with the surface of 
the earth. Some day, he knew, electric messages 
would travel that way—straight and in one di¬ 
rection only. 

But ever, as he worked back and forth through 
the different wave-lengths, he listened for mes¬ 
sages of his own. Nor did he listen in vain. 
Presently the Surveyor’s call came crackling in 
his ears. Quickly he sent the answering signal 
flashing back through the darkness. 

Then came the message. “ Rum runners well 
outside of three-mile limit. Cannot touch them. 
Little runners practically all ashore before we 
got near. Probably had wireless warning. Be¬ 
lieve some went seaward. Likely heading for 
Long Island. Many try to enter harbor. Run¬ 
ning without lights. Keep close watch.” 

The message was from one of the sub chasers. 
Willie repeated it to his Chief. “ Just as I 
feared,” said the Chief. “ They caught nothing. 
It is all the more important for us to get any 
boats that try to slip into the harbor. But if we 
don’t catch any runners, we can at least prevent 
any more from getting to the rum fleet.” And 
he gave Willie a message. 

“ Stand by and watch rum fleet as long as pos- 


291 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

sible,” flashed out Willie. “ Prevent transfer of 
any more booze to small boats. If sea grows too 
heavy, run for nearest harbor.” 

The sub ehaser acknowledged the order and 
switched off. Once more Willie began to comb 
the air for messages that might have some bear¬ 
ing on the situation. Some ships might be send¬ 
ing a message that would help the Chief. 

Suddenly Willie’s pulse quickened. A signal 
that he knew as well as he knew his own was 
sounding through the air. 

“ WNA—WNA—WN A de IvWC-KWC 
—KWC.” 

It was a call for his old friend, Roy. And the 
sender of the message was his new friend, Reyn¬ 
olds. The Morro Castle was nearing port. The 
Lycoming could not be far behind her. Intently 
Willie listened to see if Roy caught the call. 
A moment there was silence. Then, clear as 
a bell, came the well-known signaling of his 
chum. 

“ KWC—KWC—KWC de WNA-I-I- 
I.” (“ Steamer Lycoming answering steamer 

Morro Castle. All right. Go ahead.”) 

" Morro Castle now off Sandy Hook,” said the 
answering message. “ Whole fleet sailing craft 
near Ambrose channel with no lights. Great 
danger collision. Must be rum fleet. Morro 


292 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

Castle proceeding at half speed. Tell Captain 
Lansford.” 

Sharp and clear came the Morro Castle's sig¬ 
nals. Equally clear, though not so loud, was 
Roy’s reply. Evidently he was a good many 
miles behind the Morro Castle . The moment 
Roy finished acknowledging the message, Willie 
cut loose with a sharp call. 

“ KWC—KWC—KWC de CBM—CBM— 
CBM.” 

Promptly came the response. “ CBM—CBM 
—CBM de KWC. Surprised to hear you at 
this hour. Working overtime? ” 

“ Yes, but not at the Custom-house,” flashed 
back Willie. “ Am with the customs fleet. 
We’re looking for rum runners. Heard you tell 
Roy about the rum fleet off Ambrose lightship. 
They arrived this afternoon. If you see any 
power boats, let us know which way they’re 
headed. Am aboard the Surveyor . Her call is 
NQU.” 

Will ask the watch to keep sharp lookout. 
Will let you know if we see any. What’s new? ” 

“ Nothing but the rum fleet,” flashed back 
Willie. “ Wish you’d tell Roy you have been 
talking to me. Ask him to keep watch for rum 
runners. How far back of you is the Lycom¬ 
ing? " 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 


293 


“ About six hours. Will call her. Good-bye.” 

“ Good-bye. I’ll be listening in.” 

Willie laid down his head ’phone and sought 
his Chief, who was snuggled down in the cockpit, 
wrapped in a blanket. “ Just been talking to the 
Morro Castle said Willie. “ You know the 
operator. He came to see you about me. The 
Morro Castle's just off the Hook now. He says 
there’s a whole fleet of sailing ships there run¬ 
ning without lights. The Morro Castle's pro¬ 
ceeding at half speed. Mr. Reynolds was just 
warning Roy, on the Lycoming. I got him and 
asked him to look out for rum runners. He’ll let 
us know if he spots any.” 

“ Good for you, Willie. You always seem to 
do the right thing at the right time. Maybe your 
message may be of great help to us.” 

“ I hope so,” replied Willie, as he went back 
to the wireless. 

But for a long time no more friendly voices 
came hurtling through the air. The night grew 
darker and rougher. The wind was rising. 
From the sea the sound of the waves came ever 
louder. Higher rolled the waters and the little 
Surveyor rocked ever more violently. But she 
was a seaworthy craft, and there was as yet not 
enough sea to drive her to shelter. Back and 
forth she went, across her beat, and back and 


294 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

* 

forth went her companion ships through the 
murky night. 

Minute followed minute. The patrol con¬ 
tinued undisturbed. If possible, the night grew 
darker and blacker. Wisps of fog began to scud 
through the Narrows, driven landward by the 
bellowing wind. The distant lights ashore grew 
dim. The mist was blotting them out. What the 
Chief had feared was happening. A fog was roll¬ 
ing in from the sea. But as yet it was not dense. 
Rather it was shifting, evanescent. Now came a 
cloud of it, sweeping along before the wind. 
When it passed, it left a great gulf of darkness. 
Soon came more fog, to swallow up everything 
in its concealing embrace. Warm garments were 
no protection against it. Stout coats could not 
bar out the cold. The crews of the little fleet 
could only shiver and wrap themselves the 
tighter. They could not escape the damp, numb¬ 
ing chill. 

With his coat collar pulled high up about his 
ears, and his hands buried in his pockets, Willie 
sat at his instrument, listening. His teeth were 
well-nigh achatter. He was shaking with cold. 
Little shivers ran up and down his back. Now 
he would have welcomed a chance to thrash about 
with his arms, to beat his limbs until the blood 
was surging through them again. But he could 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 295 

not. His duty was to stay by the wireless. So 
he sat, shivering, chilled almost to numbness, 
listening for the message which, it seemed, would 
never come. 

Occasionally the fog lifted for a moment. At 
such times the watchers could see afar off toward 
the sea a glow of light. It was the Morro Castle, 
beating her way in at half speed. Then the fog 
curtain would drop again, and the night become 
like a cave for darkness. 

Suddenly Willie was startled into activity. 
His call was sounding in his ear. Reynolds was 
trying to get him. Willie threw over his switch. 
‘‘Steamer Morro Castle. Surveyor answering,” 
he flashed. “ All right. Go ahead.” 

“ Four power boats just passed us making for 
the Narrows,” came the message. “ Appear to 
be rum runners. We are two or three miles out¬ 
side the Narrows.” 

“ Thanks,” answered Willie. “ We’ll be on 
the watch. Good-bve.” 

Then he snatched his ’phone piece from his ear 
and sought the Chief. “ Morro Castle just tele¬ 
graphed that four rum running power boats had 
passed her, heading for the Narrows. The 
Morro Castle is three or four miles out.” 

The Chief sprang to his feet. “ Call the other 
boats,” he said. “ Tell them to watch sharp. 


296 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Tell them to wait until the rum runners come 
close, then spot them with their flashlights and 
order them to stop. Use rifles, if necessary.” 

Willie stepped to his instrument and flashed 
the fleet call. Instantly the other boats re¬ 
sponded. But it was needless to pass on the or¬ 
der. The other operators had likewise caught the 
Morro Castle's message to the Surveyor, and the 
patrol boats were on the alert. 

Now they quickened their speed. Back and 
forth they went across the tumbling waters. Now 
the fog lifted for a moment, but nothing was 
visible save the dull, distant glow of the Morro 
Castle's lights. Then the fog curtain fell again, 
blanketing everything. The wind blew in short, 
sharp blasts. The waves were beating on the 
shore and breaking with a never ceasing tumult of 
sound. Aboard the little fleet every ear was alert 
to catch the sound of motors, every eye was 
straining into the dark to single out some slightest 
gleam of light, some chance reflection that would 
betray the presence of the smugglers. Occasion¬ 
ally there was a lull in the wind. Once the roar 
of a motor was distinctlv heard. It seemed to be 
close to the eastern shore. Then the sound was 
swallowed up in the tumult of the waves. 

The Surveyor was stationed at the easternmost 
end of the patrol line. If the sound had been 


297 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

heard aright, the little boat must be directly in 
the path of the speeding power boats. 

The Chief stepped to Willie’s side. “ Never 
mind your wireless now,” he said. “ Come here 
and listen. We need your trained ear outside. 
We thought we heard the beating of a motor.” 

Willie threw down his head ’phone and stepped 
outside. At first he was deafened by the tumult 
of wind and water. His head ’phones had shut 
out much of the roar. In a few moments he be¬ 
came accustomed to the noise. He cupped his 
hand to his ear, held his breath and listened with 
all his might. But he could hear nothing save 
the tempest. Then the fog shut down again—a 
great, gray, blinding blanket of mist, that hid 
even the very waters alongside. 

“ Listen! ” cautioned Willie. 

He knew the carrying powers of fog. For a 
moment nothing was audible but the wind and 
wave. Then distinctly came the muffled roar of 
a motor. For a full five seconds it sounded. 
Then it was audible no longer. 

“ It sounds as though it were close to this 
shore,” said Willie to his Chief. He had almost 
to shout to make himself heard. 

“ Just what I thought,” said the Chief. 

“ You can’t be sure, though,” said Willie. 
“ Fog plays strange tricks with sound.” 



298 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


Wherever the rum runner was, it was evident 
that she was not far away. Certainly she was 
within half a mile. Probably she was nearer. 
Once more the fog lifted. Through the rift in 
the mist Willie made out some lights high in air. 
They were the lights of Quarantine. 

“ We’ve drifted clear into the Narrows,” he 
called in his Chief’s ear. “ We’re at the very 
narrowest part of the river.” 

“ Good! ” said the Chief. “ Look! ” 

Far down the Narrows, and close to the west¬ 
ern shore, there was a momentary gleam of light 
through the rift in the mist, as though a smoker 
were holding a match to his pipe in his cupped 
hands. Then the light was swallowed up in 
darkness. 

“ We were wrong about the sound of that 
motor,” said the Chief. “ They must be slipping 
along the western shore. We must head them 
off. Call the other boats quick! ” The Chief 
turned to the steersman. 

“ Hard about! ” he called. 

“ Wait! ” cried Willie. “That might be a 
light ashore. Or they might be trying to fool us. 
It isn’t likely they would come up the west bank. 
They’d surely meet boats anchored off Quaran¬ 
tine. And I’m certain the motor we heard was 
on this side of the river.” 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 299 

“ Never mind,” called the Chief to the steers¬ 
man. “ Keep her steady.” 

“ Hold your message, Willie. Let each boat 
keep her place in line and close in if a rum runner 
is discovered.” 

Willie stepped to his instrument. But before 
he could clamp his head ’phones on, the roar of 
motors came loud and distinct. This time there 
could be no mistake. The sounds were on the 
east side of the river, and there was more than 
one motor exploding. 

“ They’re coming along this bank,” shouted 
Willie. “ I hear several motors.” 

“ Call in the fleet,” shouted back the Chief. 

Willie flashed out the order. “ Close in to¬ 
ward the east bank.” 

Instantly each boat replied. The Surveyor 
quickened her pace and headed farther inshore. 
With straining eyes her crew stared into the dark. 
The Chief swept the surface of the tossing waters 
with a powerful night glass. Suddenly a cry 
burst from his lips. 

“ I see them. They’re close ashore and com- 
ing like the wind. Crowd on all speed. We 
must cut them off. Man your searchlight.” 

Plainer and plainer came the roar of the speed¬ 
ing rum runners. “ Dead ahead,” called the 
Chief to the steersman. “ If we’re fast enough 


300 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


we’ll cut them off. Turn on your searchlight, a 
little off the starboard bow.” 

Suddenly a dazzling beam of light shot across 
the waves. A moment it swept back and forth 
across the foaming water. Then it came to rest. 
Three power boats in close formation were tear¬ 
ing through the surging seas. 

“ Where’s the fourth? ” cried Willie. 

“ Port your helm,” ordered the Chief, “ or they 
will get by us.” 

With every ounce of power they possessed, the 
roaring rum runners were striving to pass the 
Surveyor. At full speed the little patrol boat 
was cutting for shore to head them off. Closer 
and closer to the shore line ventured the speeding 
smugglers. 

“ Gad! ” cried the Chief. “ In another min¬ 
ute we’ll run them ashore.” 

The distance was greater than he judged. In 
another minute the foremost rum runner was 
passing the Surveyor's bow like a race horse. Her 
companions were close to her flanks. Not a 
dozen yards separated the flying smugglers from 
the shore, but it was enough, for the tide was at 
flood. The Surveyor was still half a cable’s 
length away. 

“ They are going to make it,” shouted the 
Chief. “ Get your guns.” 


301 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

He grabbed up a megaphone. “ Stop!” he 
roared. “ Or we’ll fire.” 

The response was a shot from the foremost 
rum runner. 

** Down! ” cried the Chief. “ Shoot and shoot 
to hit.” 

The crew sank to the deck and whipping out 
their weapons, opened fire. A shot must have 
gone true, for the leading rum runner faltered, 
swerved from her course, and was almost run 
down by a sister boat. The fleeing fleet was 
throAvn into confusion. 

“ We’re going to get them,” shouted the Chief, 
firing as fast as he could aim. 

For a moment the rum runners fell off in 
speed. The Surveyor gained on them fast. 
“ Stop! ” again shouted the Chief. “ In the 
name of the law, stop! ” 

In reply a burly fellow stepped to the side of 
the foremost rum runner, raised a rifle, aimed 
carefully, and fired. There was a crash over¬ 
head and the Surveyor's searchlight winked out. 
Again the rum runners’ motors roared and the 
fleet power boats drew away from the pursuing 
squadron. The Surveyor swung in pursuit. At 
the same moment another power boat was heard 
roaring up the channel, close to the western shore. 

“A ruse!” cried the Chief. “They tried to 


302 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

fool us. Three of them came up the eastern 
shore while a fourth came along the other side 
and made a light to draw us across the river. If 
we had gone, I suppose she would have joined 
the three on this side. But they got through, 
though they didn’t fool us. Our watch was in 
vain.” 

“ Don’t say that,” replied Willie. “ We’re 
going to get them yet.” 

“ How? ” said the Chief. “ In a night like 
this? They can run rings around us.” 

“Listen!” said Willie. “Did you see that 
fellow who shot our light out? ” 

“ Sure I saw him.” 

“ Do you know who he was? ” 

“ Of course not.” 

“ Well, I do. He had on a red necktie. I 
caught a flash of it as he leveled his gun. I 
couldn’t see his face well for his cap was pulled 
down and he was too far away. But I saw the 
red at his neck. That’s ‘ Red ’ Anderson. I 
know where he hangs out and I’ll bet a dollar I 
know where he’s heading for.” 

“ Where? ” said the Chief. 

“ The barge pier on the East River. That’s 
his hangout. It would be the easiest place in 
the world for him to land a cargo, for all those 
bargemen work together.” 


303 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

The Chief turned to the man at the helm. 

* Full speed tor the Battery,” he ordered. 
“ We’ll land there and cut across to the barge 
pier. Then the fleet can sail up the East River 
and take these fellows in the rear while we ap¬ 
proach from the land side. We’ll get them yet— 
providing Willie is right. Break out your lights. 
It’s too dangerous to run dark on a night like 
this.” 

The lights of the Surveyor blazed forth. The 
Chief turned to Willie. “ Call up the fleet,” he 
said, “ and order them to the Battery landing at 
top speed.” 

A moment later the little fleet was surging 
through the boisterous waters, their lights now 
agleam, in a final effort to take the smugglers. 
At the Battery landing the force divided. Half 
of the men leaped ashore. The others stayed 
aboard to man the little fleet. Signals were ar¬ 
ranged. 

“ We’ll try to watch you from shore,” said the 
Chief, “ and descend on that pier at the same 
moment that you reach the slip. Remember, 
they’re a desperate bunch. If there’s to be any 
shooting, you shoot first.” 

Along the sea wall, and past the barge office 
and the ferry buildings, the land force ran at 
speed, glad of an opportunity to warm their 



304 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


chilled bodies. Then they began to pick their 
way along South Street. Wherever it was pos¬ 
sible, they slipped out on a pier to keep in touch 
with the little fleet. The boats were shooting up 
the East River at top speed, close to the ends of 
the piers. Carefully they kept in touch with the 
boats until all were near the barge pier. Then 
the Special Agent gathered his little force for 
the charge. 

“ Get your guns ready,” he said, “ though you 
needn’t draw them until we are out on the pier. 
There may be nothing there at all. We don’t 
want to attract attention and we don’t want to 
look foolish.” 

Rapidly the little group strode up the street. 
At the barge pier they paused a second to look 
and listen. The pier was dark and apparently 
unoccupied. Yet from the river end came 
muffled noises and subdued voices. 

“ Come on,” whispered the Chief. “ Some¬ 
thing’s doing there. Get your guns ready.” 

They stepped lightly out on the pier. At first 
they could see nothing. Then they made out 
great piles of freight heaped across the pier. 
Something was afoot behind these freight piles, 
but what it was thev could not tell. The attack- 
ers crept nearer. They came close to the piles of 
freight and peered past them. Motor trucks were 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 305 

standing on the end of the pier. The freight had 
been piled so as to conceal the end of the pier; 
but room had been left for the trucks to slip 
through. Already one truck was piled high with 
cases of smuggled whiskey. Men were passing 
other cases up to the pier from motor-boats, and 
still others were loading the cases on the trucks. 

A coarse laugh broke the stillness. With an 
oath a rough voice said, “ You sure fixed that 
light, Red. Them shrimps thought they was 
goin’ to ketch us.” And the speaker gave a loud 
guffaw. 

At that very instant the lights of the little fleet 
appeared off the pier. “ Now,” said the Chief, 
leaping forward. “ Come on.” 

The customs guards leaped from concealment 
and swept round the freight piles. 

“Hands up!” cried the Chief, “and no 
monkey business. WeTl drill the first man that 
tries to draw a gun.” 

A cry went up. Savage oaths burst forth. 
The smugglers in the dock were trying to start 

their motors. 

“ None of that! ” ordered the Chief. " Stop it 
or I’ll fire! ” 

The patrol fleet from the river turned and 
drove into the slip. The Chief hailed them. 
“ Arrest every man in those boats,” he ordered. 


306 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 


“ Handcuff them at once. Shoot at the first 
attempt to resist.” 

Taken thoroughly by surprise, the smugglers 
could offer no real resistance. “ Come on,” said 
the Chief. “ We’re going to the Old Slip sta¬ 
tion. March.” 

He posted guards on each side of the captured 
smugglers and others behind them. Then he 
turned back toward the motor-boats. Already 
the crews had been handcuffed. They were 
helped to the pier and marched off after their 
companions. 

“ Get the rest of that stuff out of those boats 
and in these trucks,” ordered the Chief, “ and 
watch it closely. I’ll have some department 
drivers down here as quick as I can get them, to 
take the stuff away. Be sure you stay with the 
loads until they are under lock and key.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


VICTORY 

PAKEN completely by surprise, the rum run- 
ners dared offer no resistance. They were 
marched off to jail and their smuggled whiskey 
carted away and put under lock and key. 
Alarmed by such vigorous action, and by the 
watchfulness of the sub chasers, other rum run¬ 
ners remained safe on land. The whiskey fleet, 
discouraged at its lack of success, drew farther 
offshore and was scattered by the storm. 

“ They’ll try to get their stuff ashore some¬ 
where,” said the Special Agent to Willie, as they 
were discussing the situation next morning, “ and 
probably they’ll succeed. But at any rate, they 
have had a lesson. They will think twice before 
they try to bring any more booze into New York 
direct. It sure was a good night’s work.” 

“ It sure was,” echoed Willie, who could still 
feel the thrill of the chase. 

Suddenly the Special Agent swung square 
around in his chair. “ Willie,” he said, “ tell me 
how you knew that was Red Anderson. You’ve 

been in this service only a few months, but you 

307 


308 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

seem to know more that’s useful than half the old 
hands in it.” 

Willie laughed to conceal his pleasure. “ That 
was easy. I saw him once in a sailors’ hangout 
on South Street,” said Willie. “I was with 
Sheridan. He told me to take a good look at the 
fellow and never forget him, for he had a hand in 
half the crimes along the water-front.” 

“ You can say it was easy,” replied the Chief, 
“ but that doesn’t make it so. Lots of us could 
see a face a dozen times and still not recognize it, 
especially on a stormy night.” 

“ Oh! It was the necktie,” laughed Willie. 
“ You’d never forget a sailor with a red necktie.” 

“ Whether I would or not, makes no difference. 
The point is that we got those smugglers. We 
made a good showing instead of appearing ridic¬ 
ulous. We owe it to you. I shall not forget 
it.” 

Willie was too much embarrassed to make anv 

«/ 

reply. He turned to his work, determined to do 
even more to merit his Chief’s good-will. He had 
been lucky, mighty lucky. He realized that very 
well. It was a sobering thought. But another 
thought gave him more satisfaction. He couldn’t 
have had his luck if he had not put his pride in 
his pocket and started at the bottom. He could 
at least take credit for having sense enough to do 


VICTORY 


309 


that. He knew well enough now that he wouldn’t 
stay at the bottom. Indeed, he had already 
climbed up one rung of the ladder. 

He was to step up another much sooner than 
he dreamed possible. For a few days later his 
big friend Sheridan came swinging into the office, 
this time dressed in his best, and looking very 
handsome. 

He smiled at Willie, but said nothing until he 
reached the inner office. Then he said, “ I’ve 
come to borrow an office boy.” 

Willie pricked up his ears. 

“ I’m sorry,” said the Special Agent, “ but I 
have only one, and he’s too valuable to lend. 
Can I help you in any other way? ” 

“ If I can’t borrow him,” said Sheridan, “ I’ll 
have to buy him. We’ve simply got to have him. 
There’s a counterfeiting case afoot and we are in 
great need of an intelligent boy to help trail some 
men we’re watching. We can’t use a man for 
this particular job. We must have a boy. 
There’s nobody else we know that will answer so 
well as your office boy for the job.” 

The big detective turned to Willie. “ The 
Chief of the Secret Service,” he said, “ has a job 
for you that you’ll like.” 

Willie’s eyes glistened. “ What is it? ” he 
asked. 


310 THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR 

“ You’ll be rated as a clerk,” said Sheridan, 
“ but you’ll really be doing Secret Service. The 
position will lead, when you are a little older and 
more experienced, to a full appointment as a 
Secret Service agent.” 

“ Then I’ll take it,” said Willie, without a mo¬ 
ment’s hesitation. “ But, by George! I hate to 
leave Mr. King.” 

“And Mr. King hates to have you go,” said the 
Special Agent. “ But I won’t try to prevent it. 
I know your ambition. I know you’ll succeed. 
But I do wish you would stay in this department. 
It would lead to all the secret service you could 
want as a special treasury agent.” 

“ I’m sorry, Mr. King,” said Willie. “ I hate 
to leave you. I like my work here immensely. 
But I started out to get into the Secret Service 
proper and this is my chance. I’ll have to take 
it.” 

“And I,” groaned Mr. King, “ will have to 
start in with a new office bov. Oh! Lord! ” 

When Willie was free that evening, he raced 
over to the Confederated Steamship piers and 
rushed aboard the Lycoming. He found Roy 
and Mr. Robbins chatting in the purser’s office. 

“ I came to get you both to go to dinner with 
me,” he said. “ It’s my treat. I’m celebrating. 
I’ve got a new job. And it isn’t as an office 
boy.” 












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Walter P. Eaton 


The Boy Scouts of Berkshire 

A story of how the Chipmunk Patrol was started, what they did 
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The Boy Scouts of the Dismal Swamp 

This story is a continuation of THE BOY SCOUTS OF BERKSHIRE 
and is an unusually interesting book on Boy Scouting. 310 pages 

Boy Scouts in the White Mountains 

Intimate knowledge of the country as well as of the basic princi* 
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A Story of Boy Scouting 

This story is a continuation of the history of Peanut and the other 
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Peanut—Cub Reporter 

A Boy Scout's life and adventures on a newspaper 

A rattling newspaper story with Peanut as the central character 
— he who has figured so prominently in the author’s four Boy Scont 
books* 320 pages 

Boy Scouts in Glacier Park 

The adventures of two young Easterners in the heart of the high 
Rockies. The volume gives an accurate and descriptive picture of 
this Park, and might well be used as a guide book. This book is 
illustrated by wonderful photographs. 8S6 pages 

Boy Scouts at Crater Lake 

A Story of the High Cascades 

A very valuable and intensely interesting story of the experience 
of two boys at Crater Lake Park. Their experiences and adven¬ 
tures will thrill every boy reader, and so accurate is the informa¬ 
tion relative to the Park itself that one may easily feel that this 
author has been over every foot of it himself. 320 pages 


"Every story Written by Walter P. Eaton runs true in its de¬ 
scription of nature. He is a loVer of the out-of-doors, a 
keen observer of animals and a remarkable leader of boys. 
His pictures are real and the spirit behind them betokens 
the loVer of Nature that he is, and best of all. you can de¬ 
pend upon the truth of what he Writes."— the Herald. 








RADIO STORIES BY 

Lewis E. Theiss 


TheYoung Wireless Operator—Afloat 

Or How Roy Mercer Won His Spurs in the Merchant Marine 

Storm, fog and accidents at sea, all lose much of their danger 
when aboard each vessel is an up-to-date wireless outfit and a 
staunch, loyal boy like Roy Mercer to operate it. 320 pages 

The Young Wireless Operator — as a 
Fire Patrol 

Being the Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made 
Good as a Fire Patrol 

Through the experiments of this young Pennsylvania boy the 
radio has been introduced as the means of communication among 
fire patrols the country over. This is his story. 352 pages 

The Young Wireless Operator—With 
the Oyster Fleet 

How Alec Cunningham Won His Way to the Top in the Oyster 
Business 

Radio communication is essential to success in every great sea¬ 
going industry and in none more than with the oyster fleets off our 
coast. Alec used it to advantage for both the owner of the fleet 
and himself. 828 pages 

The Hidden Aerial 

The Spy Line on the Mountain 

Never has the radio proved its value more remarkably than in 
the great war. This is an exciting story of how it was used on 
several occasions with great success. 320 pages 

The Secret Wireless 

The story of how the Camp Brady patrol used their knowledge of 
the wireless at the beginning of the great war. 320 pages 

Wireless Patrol at Camp Brady 

A story of how the boy campers “ did their bit.” 

OTHER STORIES BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

In Camp at Fort Brady 
Lumberjack Bob 

His Big Brother 






BOOKS BY 

Com. Thos. D. Parker, U. S. N. 


Young Heroes of the American Navy 

Being stories and adventures of the most noted young heroes 

of our Navy 

The naval history of our country has developed many young men 
who through patriotism have performed many acts of daring hero¬ 
ism and whose names are in the hall of naval Tame. The book is 
fully illustrated with reproductions of the events which the various 
characters made memorable. 

320 pages 

The Cruise of the Deep Sea Scouts 

Or, Boy Scouts Afloat. Illustrated with colored frontispiece 

The activities of the Boy Scouts Afloat are today more interesting 
than ever before. Deep sea scouting is one of the most important 
activities of the Boy Scout Organization and the call of the sea is 
as strong as the call of the woods or the mountains, while the life 
of the sailor promotes the same discipline and training as does the 
life of the soldier. 

320 pages 

The Spy on the Submarine 

A thrilling story of adventure on board a submarine destroyer 
and upon a submarine itself. This is an up-to-date story, full of 
the experiences which are daily happening and serving to make a 
large part of the history of this great war. 

320 pages 

The Air Raider 

Winning the Gold and Silver Chevron 

Our navy and shipbuilding yards were exposed to many dangers 
from enemies both within and without during the war. Few real¬ 
ized it, but Commander Parker did. THE AIR RAIDER gives a 
thrilling picture of what might have occurred in one yard, if cer¬ 
tain loyal young men had not kept an ever watchful eye open for 
every emergency. 

Sailing under Sealed Orders 

A Story of the Navigator of the “Greenville.” Beautiful col¬ 
ored jacket. 

“ Sealed Orders” always sends a thrill through every “Jackie.’’ 
“What Port' and “what’s up” are two principal questions asked. 
The author knows what boys like and Uncle Sam’s Navy is an open 
book to him, 286 pages 

Mr. Parker's stories are based on his intimate knowledge of 
naVal affairs. The experiences Which his characters go 
through will show to eVery reader of his books just What is 
happening or may happen Within the gates of any of our 
NaVy Yards, or on the high seas on board one of our great 
battleships . They are true pictures of naVal life afloat and 
ashore. 





fip Captain Edu). L. Beach , U.S.N . 


Ralph Osborn—Midshipman at Am 
napolis 

A STORY OF ANNAPOLIS LIFE. 386 pages 

Midshipman Ralph Osborn at Sea 

A STORY OF MIDSHIPMAN LIFE AT SEA. AND 
CONTINUING “ RALPH OSBORN —MIDSHIPMAN 
AT ANNAPOLIS." 360 pages 

Ensign Ralph Osborn 

THE STORY OF HIS TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS 
IN A BATTLESHIP’S ENGINE ROOM. 338 pages 

Lieutenant Ralph Osborn Aboard a 
Torpedo Boat Destroyer 

BEING THE STORY OF HOW RALPH OSBORN 
BECAME A LIEUTENANT AND OF HIS CRUISE 
IN AN AMERICAN TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYER 
IN WEST INDIAN WATERS. 342 pages 

The "OSBORN” books show the steps of advancement in the 
American Navy, from Cadet to Lieutenant, with a true picture of naval 
life as it is. The information given is authentic, and many of the 
related incidents were actual occurrences. They are books of infor¬ 
mation and adventure combined. 

Such stories a3 these are not only interesting to the young people but 
carry with them an insight into naval life which will make the reader 
have more respect and appreciation of the work of Uncle Sam’s navy. 
They are first-class stories for boys—clean, good, and worthy of a 
place in the home, private or school library. 

"These are the best stories on the United States Navy which have 
ever been written. They give a clear insight into the workings of this 
important branch of American government and the characters are true 
to life as befits a book written by such a man as Commander Beach, 
whs ha3 enjoyed an enviable career ever since he entered the United 
States Navy."— New York Times . 

These to James are all fallp illustrated 
Price, Cloth, 


W. A. WILDE CO. Boston and Chicago 

_J 












j ZBy William Drysdale 

| The Famous 

| 4 4 Brain and Brawn’ ’ Series 

boy should grow up without reading these books 


The Young Reporter 

A STORY OF PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE. 300 pp. 

A genuine boys’ book for genuine boys. Full of 
life, clean, clear cut and inspiring. It will enlist the 
interest of every stirring and wide-awake boy. 

Tie Fast. Mail 

THE STORY OF A TRAIN BOY. 328 pp. 

* 

The story of the adventures of a boy who fought 
his way to success with clean grit and good sense, 
accomplishing what is within the power of every 
American boy if he sets about it. It is full of move¬ 
ment, sound in sentiment, anc wholesome in 
character. 

The Beach Patrol 

A STORY OF THE LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 318pp. 

A spirited picture of the labors and dangers to 
which members of the life-saving service are ex¬ 
posed and which few realize. 

TBe Young Supercargo 

A STORY OF THE MERCHANT MARINE. 352 pp. 

This book has all of the interest of ‘ ‘ Oliver 
Optic’s ” books, with none of their improbabilities. 

The Volumes are Fully Illustrated. 


W. A. WILDE COMPANY 

Boston and Chicago 











BOOKS BY 

Ellen Douglas Deland 


Malvern; A Neighborhood Story 

341 pp. i 2 mo. Cloth. 

“Malvern” is a story of fine workmanship, sterling 
sentiments, and more than ordinary caliber. The author 
is one of the best writers for young people, and this is 
certainly one of her best stories.— The Interior. 

A Successful Venture 

340 pp. xamo. Cloth. 

This book, primarily for girls, is lively and full of 
interest, pure in its tone and free from sensation, and 
full of many helpful suggestions. It is a story of a family 
of girls who found it necessary to make their own way in 
the world. This they did with success.— Boston Transcript. 

Katrina 

340 pp. iamo. Cloth. 

‘ ‘Katrina’ ’ is a story which all girl readers would pro¬ 
nounce a capital good one. The heroine’s desire to look 
beyond the horizon of her little village when opportunity 
presents itself takes her to New York, where she finds new 
pleasures and experiences. The book is certainly a most 
wholesome one.— The Bookseller , New York. 

Three Girls of Hazelmere. A Story 

360 pp. i2mo, Cloth. 

To take a trip abroad with Miss Deland’s “Three Girls 
of Hazelmere ” is a treat for any reader, for the author’s 
style is natural, yet remarkably effective, and the interest 
follows closely to the end of the book.— Bookseller. 

The Friendship of Anne 

342 pp. I2R10. Cloth. 

This is a book which will appeal to girls and interest 
them throughout. It is founded on boarding-school life 
and is full of activity and enthusiasm.— Herald and Pres¬ 
byter. 

Each Volume Fully Illustrated. 





BOOKS BY 

Amy E. Blanchard 

Camp Fire and Qirl Scout Stories 


The Camp Fire Girls of Brightwood 

A Story of how They Kindled Their Fire and Kept It Burning 

What the Boy Scout Organization means to the boys. Camp Fire 
Girls means to their sisters. This story shows the development in 
the character of those who made up the organization in the little 
town of Brightwood, their difficulties and triumphs in forming their 
organization, and the experiences and pleasures enjoyed by them 
are woven into an intensely interesting story by an author who is 
devoted to the work. 309 pages 

Fagots and Flames 

A Story of Winter Camp Fires; with colored frontispiece by 
Frank T. Merrill 

This is a companion volume to “ The Camp Fire Girls of Bright- 
wood,” but absolutely independent of it. The author has carried 
along the characters in the former story, bringing into prominence 
the true-hearted country girl, Kathleen Gilman. It is brightened 
with girlish fun and by the ceremonials of the Camp Fire Girls. 

306 pages 

In Camp with the Muskoday Camp 
Fire Girls 

A Story of the Camp Fire by the Lake. Colored Frontispiece 

Readers of this volume will recognize many of the old characters 
of whom they have read in " The Camp Fire Girls of Brightwood ” 
and “ Fagots and Flames.” The story relates the experiences that 
attended their life in the open. 318 pages 

A Girl Scout of Red Rose Troop 

A Story for Girl Scouts 

Every girl who is now a scout, every girl who would like to be a 
scout and is not — will want to read this story by an author who 
herself knows all about scouting 820 pages 

Lucky Penny of Thistle Troop 

A Girl Scout Story 

Penny Atwood, the girl scout heroine of Thistle Troop, is well 
named Lucky Penny, for fortune seems always to smile upon her. 
The story tells of the activities of the girls — glimpses of school life 
and its friendships, of a bazaar, a Valentine narty. o skating carni¬ 
val, and of a little Belgian refugee who won their hearts and made 
a place for herself in their Troop 





BOOKS BY 


Amy E. Blanchard 


Elizabeth , Betsy and Bess 

If there is one thing that Miss Amy E. Blanchard knows well it is 
the child’s heart, and this knowledge stands her in good stead in 
her recent book. The story runs into just such conversation and 
escapades as three young girls are liable to indulge in. Illustrated. 

284 pages 


Elizabeth , Betsy and Bess — School¬ 
mates 

This is the story of the school days of the three girl chums and 
shows the individual development of each one. Every chapter 
is full of the interesting experiences dear to the hearts of girls of 
this age. Illustrated. 320 pages 


A Qirl of ’76 

About Colonial Boston. Cloth. 

A story of the earlier period of the Revolutionary War written 
primarily for girls, and the homes and heroines depicted are drawn 
so as to give peculiar interest to its readers. 

381 pages 


A Little Maid of Picardy 

A story full of adventures in the life of a refugee maid of Picardy. 
An American girl with the love of France in her heart tells this 
wonderful story of hardships, yes, and pleasures as well, of the 
heroic refugee. Illustrated with colored frontispiece and cover. 

320 pages 

From Tenderfoot to Golden Eaglet 

A Qirl Scout Story. Illustrated and with colored jacket. 

A real Girl Scout story for every girl, whether a Scout or not. Full 
of life and fun from beginning to end. A true glimpse into the 
thoughts, elforts and activities of a genuine Scout Patrol. 

° 317 pages 

Becky—A Story 

A sweet lovable girl is “Becky” and to read about her and know 
her will be a great pleasure to any girl. So natural, so full of girl¬ 
ish interests, so true to the best in her and still just ‘ Becky. ’ It’s 
worth five ordinary girl’s books. 320 pages 

















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































